Middle East
Khalil Ataj, a former Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leadership member, speaking to Rudaw on June 11, 2025. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A former senior figure in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Wednesday said Turkey’s renewed push for peace with the group hinges on developments in the Kurdish-held northeast Syria (Rojava), as jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan seeks to meet top leaders from the Kurdistan Region and Rojava.
“Turkey now wants to create an opportunity for the Kurds, and if they are united, the Kurds can achieve confederation in Turkey,” Khalil Ataj, a former PKK leadership member close to Ocalan, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih.
The remarks come amid renewed momentum for peace. In late February, Ocalan called on the PKK to convene a congress to decide on disbanding the group and laying down arms in favor of a political approach. The PKK held a congress in early May, announcing its dissolution and an end to its four-decade armed struggle.
Ataj stressed that the peace process in Turkey is closely tied to developments in Rojava, which he believes is “the key to resolving the peace process.”
Tensions remain over Turkey’s stance toward Rojava’s de facto army, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Ankara considers the US-allied force’s backbone, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), an offshoot of the PKK.
In March, the SDF chief Mazloum Abdi signed a landmark agreement with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, which Turkey endorsed. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later urged the integration of the SDF into Syria’s regular army, as outlined in the deal.
Despite this, Ataj said that while “Turkey has a desire to limit and diminish” Rojava, their main objective in the peace process is related to the Kurdish enclave in Syria.
In late May, Abdi said they had established "direct" contact with Turkish authorities and expressed willingness to meet with Erdogan. However, in early June, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) spokesperson Omer Celik denied that Turkey had held meetings with the SDF.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, DEM Party spokesperson Aysegul Dogan told reporters that Ocalan wishes to meet with key Kurdish leaders, including those from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) as well as Abdi.
Sinan Ciftyurek, a DEM Party official, said such meetings would have “great importance for the Kurdish cause” across Turkey, Syria, and the Kurdistan Region.
Turkey's focus is now on Rojava, said the lawmaker, stressing that “the creation of Kurdish consensus has great importance for Rojava” and other Kurdish-majority areas in the region.
In April, Kurdish political groups in Syria issued a rare unified statement calling for a decentralized, democratic system that guarantees Kurdish rights and supports a broader national dialogue. The Kurdistan Region’s leadership has also backed a unified stance among Rojava’s ruling and opposition parties and helped facilitate talks between them.
However, Ciftyurek said that “Turkey has not taken any practical steps to advance the process, and the horizon for resolution in Turkey remains unclear, because the Turkish state views a federal system in its country as a red line.”
He added that Kurdish demands in southeastern Turkey could be addressed within a federal framework, but progress requires institutional mechanisms.
“The peace process must be conducted through parliamentary commissions,” he said.
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