A protester holding a photo of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan during a demonstration in Diyarbakir, Turkey, on Feb. 27, 2025. (Credit: Sertac Kayar/Reuters)
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which its founding leader has urged to disarm, currently considers it “impossible” to hold a congress to declare its dissolution, a senior official of the Kurdish armed group said Thursday evening.
“Every day, Turkish reconnaissance planes fly, every day, they bomb, every day, they attack,” PKK leader Cemil Bayik told Kurdish television channel Sterk TV, saying that “holding a congress under these conditions is impossible and dangerous.” However, he stressed that the congress will take place “if the conditions are met,” according to remarks reported by the pro-Kurdish ANF news agency.
Erdogan calls it a ‘historic opportunity’
The PKK, whose leadership is based in the mountains of northern Iraq, responded positively on March 1 to a call from its imprisoned founding leader, Abdullah Öcalan, to dissolve the movement and end a four-decade guerrilla war that has claimed at least 40,000 lives.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, has announced an immediate cease-fire but insists that Öcalan, who remains jailed on a prison island off Istanbul, must “personally lead” the congress that would oversee its dissolution.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Öcalan’s call, made as part of a dialogue initiated by Ankara in the fall, represents a “historic opportunity” for both Turks and Kurds, who make up an estimated 20 percent of Turkey’s 85 million people.