PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan calls on from a cell to dissolve his group after years of struggle in Turkey: “Put the weapons down”

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by, among others, the European Union and the United States. Since the 1980s, the organization has been fighting an armed battle in eastern Turkey. In total there were more than 40,000 deaths in the violence. The Kurdish movement wants far -reaching autonomy. (Read more under the photo)

Syria

Just across the border in Syrian-Kurdish areas, the Syrian branch of the PKK, the YPG, was also in the midst of the chaos of the Syrian Civil War to expand such an autonomous region. That free port for terror, as Turkish hardliners call the area, has long been a thorn in the eye of Erdogan.

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It was therefore all the more striking that the ultranationalist coalition partner of Erdogan, MHP, opened the door for new peace negotiations at the end of October last year. At the time it sounded that the leader of the PKK, who has been in isolation since 1999 in a prison on the Turkish island of Imrali, could announce the lifting of the armed battle in the Turkish Parliament in exchange for release. (Read more under the photo)

It didn’t get that far: only one day later on October 23, a PKK suicide command invaded the headquarters of a defense company in Ankara, they shot five people.

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Nevertheless, the peace conversations were resumed. On the Kurdish side, the DEM party, a left-wing but democratic pro-Kurdish party and the third largest party in the Turkish parliament, negotiate. Representatives of the party were already allowed to visit Öcalan twice. The PKK leader is now 75 years old and has been staying in a cell in almost total insulation since 1999. (Read more under the photo)

Terrorist organization

It is not clear what will happen with the Syrian branch of the PKK, the YPG. Since the regime of dictator Bashar has already fallen, the Syrian Kurds are pushed to the exit in conversations about the future of the country. Turkey has also increased the military operations in Syrian-Kurdish.

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With support from the US, the Syrian Kurds have recaptured large areas of IS. At the time, images of armed Kurdish female fighters with long locks went around the world. Their future is also uncertain due to the change of power in Washington. The PKK is regarded as a terrorist organization.