Ocalan says implementation of March deal key to stabilizing Syria, wider region

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - In a New Year message, jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan said it is “important” for Turkey to play a “facilitating, constructive, and dialogue-oriented” role in bringing Damascus and the Kurdish-led authorities of northeastern Syria (Rojava) closer together as part of an integration process.

Ocalan hailed the landmark March 10 agreement as a crucial step toward laying the groundwork needed to accelerate integration between the Syrian government and Rojava.

“The fundamental demand expressed within the framework of the agreement signed between the [Syrian Democratic Forces] SDF and the Damascus administration on March 10 is a democratic political model in which peoples can govern themselves together,” Ocalan said, adding that it is “vital that Turkey assumes a facilitating, constructive, and dialogue-oriented role in this process.”

On March 10, Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led SDF, and Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa signed an agreement aimed at integrating the SDF and the Kurdish-led administration in Rojava into Syria’s state institutions.

Negotiations over the implementation of the deal remain ongoing, but key differences persist. Kurdish negotiators favor integrating the SDF as a unified force, while the Syrian government prefers absorbing SDF fighters individually into regular army units.

“The chaotic situation in Syria is a clear reflection of the need for democratization,” Ocalan said. “Years of monolithic, oppressive, and identity-denying governance have further strengthened the demands for freedom and equality among Kurds, Arabs, Alawites, and all peoples.”

Ocalan said the implementation of the agreement is “critically important both for regional peace and for strengthening internal peace.”

Turkey

In February, Ocalan issued a historic call for his followers to lay down their arms and dissolve the organization he founded in 1978. By May, the PKK formally ended its armed structure. Since then, the group - temporarily rebranded as the Kurdistan Freedom Movement - has taken further steps to support the process, including withdrawing its fighters from Mount Zap, a strategic area long targeted by Turkish forces.

“I hope the new year will open the door to peace, freedom, and a democratic future in Turkey, the Middle East, and the world,” Ocalan said.

He added that their “fundamental responsibility in the coming period is to prevent a new conflict from emerging in the near future and to avert irreparable consequences.”

“The solution to the Kurdish issue is only possible through social peace and democratic consensus,” Ocalan said, stressing that it must be addressed not through conflict, war, or security-oriented methods, but through a democratic framework based on the will of the people.

Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, has in recent months been granted unprecedented access to mediators, family members, and lawyers following the revival of peace talks with the Turkish state.

Earlier this year, Turkey established a 51-member parliamentary commission tasked with providing a legal framework for negotiations between Ankara and the PKK, aimed at ending a four-decade-long conflict.

In late November, the commission held its first meeting with Ocalan and reported that “positive outcomes” had been achieved.