PKK Leader Karayılan Calls for End to Fighting

Milliyet journalist Hasan Cemal met with PKK leader Murat Karayılan in Northern Iraq.

The resulting interview has been published in the Milliyet newspaper as a series. We here offer a summary.

“Erdoğan does not understand the EU”

France and Germany do not want you in the European Union. That is why they do not want the Kurdish question to be resolved. Will Obama be like Bush and create a deadlock? If only Obama’s America sincerely desired a political solution…I am not sure yet what he is going to do.

Now there is a chance for a political solution, conditions have matured. Just as we were waiting for a softening of attitudes after the local elections, the opposite happened. Operations against the DTP began. We had extended our ceasefire until 1 June in the expectation of a softening of attitudes…The message of the 29 March elections (in which the DTP was very successful) is democracy.

The PKK experienced a great shock in 1999, so it will not be destroyed now. The PKK relies both on the mountains and on the masses.

“The PKK has changed”

 We now talk about a “democratic autonomous Kurdistan”. With authority we do not mean a federation or a redrawing of borders. It is a solution which does not harm the unitary structure of the state. The Local Authorities Law would change, and local government would be strengthened.

First of all, guns must be silenced. Then comes a recognition of the Kurdish identity and connected cultural rights, and then a “social reconciliation project”, which some interpret as an amnesty.

The idea of a conference (on Kurds) was initially our idea, but in the end, the initiative was not taken by us. If it is approached well, the conference may create a base for a solution. But it also has to be understood that such a Kurdish Conference cannot mean that the PKK must give up its arms.

I cannot be optimist. First of all, there is no political will in connection with the Kurdish question. This is a serious problem. Today even generals have started saying different things. But where is the political determination? Where is the Prime Minister who made certain statements in 2005?

“We hope for peace”

Giving up arms is the later step…first they have to be silenced. No one should attack each other. Let us first start talking among ourselves.

First guns will be silenced, then a dialogue will start. The place for a dialogue is İmralı (the prison island where PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan is imprisoned). If that is not accepted, then we are the right address…If that is not accepted, there is a politically elected group. If that is not accepted, then a shared committee can be founded somewhere, and thinkers can come together. (HC/EÜ/AG)