The imprisoned leader of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, has urged his followers to lay down their arms in the decades-long fight against Turkey. "All groups should lay down their weapons and the PKK should dissolve," according to a statement from Öcalan read by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party in Istanbul on Thursday. A delegation from the party had visited Öcalan in the morning at the prison on the island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara. A
  • FundMECFS@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1·
    11 hours ago

    It looks like he was basically told by Turkey he would be freed if the fighting stops. (He has been tortured in prison for decades).

    So while understandable, it’s not an order that will likely be followed, because it is a selfish one.

    The Kurds are still repressed and culturally genocided. There is no reason to stop the fighting until that stops.