Freedom of jailed Ocalan seen crucial for peace

Militants of the Turkish Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) have begun to withdraw from Turkey to the Kurdish autonomous provinces in northern Iraq following a May agreement to end their 40-year insurgency. Implementation of the peace process began in July with a symbolic destruction of weapons under the instructions of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. He called for Kurds — who make up 15-20 per cent of Turkey's population and are its largest minority — to obtain their rights through elections under Turkey's democratic political reforms.

To show good faith, Ankara has been urged to expedite the passage of laws to regulate the status of militants who have given up the armed struggle and want to remain in or return to Turkey to take part in the democratic process. The PKK said, "significant steps" must be taken.

First and foremost, Ocalan's "freedom is crucial for this process to advance with greater effectiveness," Kurdish spokesman Devrim Palu told AFP as the PKK began pulling out its fighters from Turkey. Ocalan, 76, has been imprisoned since 1999 on Imrali island off Istanbul. As founder of the PKK in 1978, Ocalan personifies the four-decade Kurdish rebellion against Turkey which cost 50,000 lives and wreaked massive destruction on Kurdish communities in the southeast.

Palu stated, “He is the person who initiated this process. He should be able to meet people easily and engage in dialogue...It’s very difficult to carry out such an important process in isolation or in prison conditions. His freedom is crucial for this process to advance with greater effectiveness." He warned of "provocations" and "polarising language" during the PKK's withdrawal.

For decades PKK bases in the mountains of northern Iraq have complicated that country’s relations with Turkey and with the autonomous Kurdish regional government which is led by the centre right Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) led by Masoud Barzani. He has had reasonable relations with the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has pledged to end Turkey’s “Kurdish problem” but has hesitated to take the decisions needed to complete the process. This now appears to be in train. Finally.

The end of Turkey's conflict with the PKK could have serious regional repercussions. This could ease relations with Syria, where the US has been allied with Syrian Kurdish forces, seen by Ankara as a PKK offshoot, in the battle against Daesh (2014-2019) and its remnants.

On the wider regional scale, the integration of the Kurds into Turkey's political system could put an end at least for a time to the Kurds' century-long quest for statehood in Kurdish majority areas of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Like the Palestinians, the Kurds have demanded an independent homeland following the demise of the Ottoman empire early in the 20th century. But the Kurds were ignored by colonial powers Britain and France which divided the eastern Arab World into possessions and areas of influence. Left in the lurch, the Kurds, who now number between 36 and 45 million, have become the world's largest stateless population.

Since the 1990s, Iraqi Kurds have administered three autonomous Iraqi provinces — Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Dohuk — which remain within Arab majority Iraq where major decisions are made by Baghdad. Erbil city is the rather stark political capital while handsome Sulaymaniyah city with its parks and traditional souq is the cultural capital. The total regional population is about 7 million. For decades, Erbil has been led by the Barzani clan while Sulaymaniyah has been under the Talabanis. Jalal Talabani served as president of Iraq while Masoud Barzani was president of the Kurdish region. During Iraq's political upheaval following the US invasion to topple President Saddam Hussein and occupation (2003-2011) the peaceful Kurdish region hosted thousands of Arab Iraqis who contributed expertise and funds to the development of this area.

While this region has given the Kurds quasi-statehood, their longing for an independent state of their own has not been quelled. Their dream remains an impossible merging of Kurdish majority areas in the region. The Kurds call Kurdish populated areas of southeastern Turkey "northern Kurdistan," areas of northern Iraq "southern Kurdistan,” areas in northeastern Syria "western Kurdistan," and areas in Iran "eastern Kurdistan." This division of the Kurdish people has produced differences among the four communities rather than led the Kurds to unify. Disunity weakens their political position and their ability to confront the Arab governments of the four states where they dwell.