Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party İmralı Delegation met with PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan for the 3rd time today in the prison on İmralı Island. Ahmet Türk, Pervin Buldan, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Tülay Hatimoğulları, Tuncer Bakırhan, Cengiz Çiçek and Faik Özgür Erol took part in the 3rd meeting. Prisoners Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş also took part in the meeting. 

 

Abdullah Öcalan, İmralı delegation and 3 prisoners made a joint statement in İmralı. The statement was filmed but not given to the delegation. Only photographs of the statement were delivered to the delegation.

 

Members of the İmralı delegation returned from the island after the statement and organised a press conference at Elit World Hotel in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. The statement started at 17:00 local time. Abdullah Öcalan's historic call was read in Turkish by Pervin Buldan and in Kurdish by Ahmet Türk. 

 

More than 140 press organizations and more than 300 journalists followed the statement. In addition, many MPs, representatives of civil society organizations, intellectuals and writers were present in the hall where the statement was made. 

 

CALL FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

 

Abdullah Öcalan called for "Peace and Democratic Society". Abdullah Öcalan's call reads: 

 

"Call for Peace and Democratic Society 

 

The PKK was born in the 20th century, in the most violent epoch of the history of humanity, amidst the two World wars, under the shadow of the experience of real socialism and the cold war around the World. The outright denial of Kurdish reality, restrictions on basic rights and freedoms - especially freedom of expression - played a significant role in its emergence and development. 

 

The PKK has been under the heavy realities of the century and the system of real socialism in terms of its adopted theory, program, strategy and tactics. In the 1990s, with the collapse of real socialism due to internal dynamics, the dissolution of the denial of Kurdish identity in the country, and improvements in freedom of expression, led to weakening of the PKK´s foundational meaningfulness and resulted in excessive repetition. 

 

Throughout the history of more than 1000 years, Turkish and Kurdish relations were defined in terms of mutual cooperation and alliance, and Turks and Kurds have found it essential to remain in this voluntary alliance to maintain their existence and survive against hegemonic Powers.

 

The last 200 years of capitalist modernity have been marked by primarily with the aim to break this alliance. The forces involved, in line with their class-based interests, have played a key role in furthering this objective. With monist interpretations of the Republic, this process has accelerated.  Today, the main task is to restructure the historical relationship, which has become extremely fragile, without excluding consideration for beliefs with the spirit of fraternity.

 

The need for a democratic society is inevitable. The PKK, the longest and most extensive insurgency and armed movement in the history of the Republic, found social base and support, and was primarily inspired by the fact that the channels of democratic politics were closed. 

 

The inevitable outcome of the extreme nationalist deviations - such as a separate nation-state, federation, administrative autonomy, or culturalist solutions - fails to answer the historical sociology of the society.  

 

Respect for identities, free self-expression, democratic self-organization of each segment of society based on their own socio-economic and political structures, are only possible through the existence of a democratic society and political space.

 

The second century of the Republic can  achieve and assure permanent and fraternal continuity only if it is crowned with democracy. There is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and realization of a political system. Democratic consensus is the fundamental way. 

   

The language of the epoch of peace and democratic society needs to be developed in accordance with this reality. 

 

The call made by Mr. Devlet Bahceli, along with the will expressed by Mr. President, and the positive responses from the other political parties towards the known call, has created an environment in which I am making a call for the laying down of arms, and I take on the historical responsibility of this call. 

 

As in the case with any modern community and party whose existence has not been abolished by force, would voluntarily do, convene your congress and make a decision; all groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself. 

 

I convey my greetings to all those who believe in co-existence and who look forward to my call. 

 

February 25, 2025

 

Abdullah Öcalan "   

 

'LEGAL DIMENSION MUST BE RECOGNISED' 

 

After the statement, Sırrı Süreyya Önder said that Abdullah Öcalan had tol the delegation that "Undoubtedly, in practice, laying down arms and the PKK's dissolution require the recognition of democratic politics and the legal dimension."