In Türkiye, negotiations between the government and the PKK are stalling
Since the PKK founder's call for the disarmament of the Kurdish guerrillas, hailed as "historic," in February, negotiations between Turkey and the Kurdish guerrillas have struggled to translate into action. Worse still, fighting continues on the ground in some areas. Repression also threatens to shatter the fragile hope of peace.
Turkish pro-government media were adamant: the Kurdish PKK guerrilla was to hold a major congress at the end of April to debate the call made on Thursday, February 27, by Abdullah Öcalan, the movement's founder, imprisoned in Turkey since 1999, to lay down his arms and dissolve the organization.
Expected for two months, this congress will not take place on the date planned by the Turkish authorities, announced the Kurdish leaders entrenched in the mountains of northern Iraq. "Since the call of February 27, we have not observed any concrete change that would allow us to translate this call into action," the organization lamented in a message released on April 28, reports the daily Birgün .
The PKK is demanding that its imprisoned founder be allowed to chair the congress it called for in its February 27th call. This is a difficult request for Ankara to meet, as it has refused to allow the Kurdish leader to speak live via videoconference, particularly out of fear that he might deliver a different message than the one he delivered two months ago, reports Turkish journalist Murat Yetkin on his blog, Yetkin Report .
Held incommunicado for
Courrier International
