KCK: Order to disarm PKK is not in hands of Ocalan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The co-leadership of the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK) has rejected claims about the disarming the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

“For now, neither Abdullah Ocalan nor HDP [The People’s Democratic Party] can call us to disarm unless our jailed leader [Ocalan] is released. Then we will start negotiating about disarmament,” said the leadership of KCK in an announcement on Friday. 

“It is impossible to disarm our guerrillas because our leader is in prison and no one should impose the disarming of the PKK guerrillas on Ocalan through force. And even if he calls on us to disarm, we know he is obliged to call for that,” said the leadership.

The announcement added: “The People’s Democratic Party cannot ask for such a claim from us. Officially, they are not part of the Kurdistan Workers Party.”

The KCK said that unless the so-called Kurdish question is solved by Ankara, their fighters would not withdraw from the Turkish border and will continue a military struggle for Kurdish rights in Turkey. 

“We also call for strengthening the current armistice that exists between Turkey and the PKK, and that Turkey’s parliament should play a vital and decisive role in solving the Kurdish question. For that to happen, Turkey needs a new constitution.”

The KCK is an organization founded by the PKK to put into practice jailed leader Ocalan’s ideology of democratic confederalism.