KCK: First Resolution, Laying Down Arms Later

Cemil Bayık, Executive Council Co-Chair of KCK, the military wing of PKK, commented on Turkey’s new roadmap of the resolution process with Kurds, saying that the resolution must come before laying down arms.  

“With this joint statement [of Turkish ministers and Kurdish politicians last Saturday], the Kurdish problem has been largely taken into the agenda,” Bayık wrote to Kurdish-language newspaper Azadiya Welat. 

“We have seen one more time that Turkey’s main political and social agenda is the democratization and the resolution of the Kurdish problem. The joint statement and [PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s] 10 measures is the very genesis of Turkey’s democratization and the resolution of the Kurdish problem.” 

Some of the highlights from Bayık’s statement are as follows: 

“This document means something. It is the legalization of what Öcalan presented to us and the Turkish state as democratic resolution draft. 

“In similar cases worldwide, a resolution emerges first, then comes the laying down arms. 

“Prior to reaching that stage, we need to come up with a truce and non-violence. 

“Our leader Apo [referring to Öcalan] is taking a historical step now. If the Turkish government will approach to the matter like in 2013 and not respond to our steps forward, they will make a huge mistake.

“In order to give a promise to lay down arms, the Turkish government must make a step forward.'' (YY/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.