Kurd's "Democratic Peace Plan" To End Hostility With Turkey (image @Breogan66)

Hoping to nail the decades-long conflict in Turkey, the Kurds are planning a “democratic” peace plan. Abdullah Ocalan, the currently jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), is working the plan to end the feud between the Kurdish militant organization and Turkey.

Reportedly, a delegation of the Peoples’ Equality and Democratic Party (DEM) and other Kurdish politicians from Turkey visited Ocalan in prison twice recently, also meeting with Turkish parliamentary factions before making a trip to Iraq and meeting with Nechirivan Barzani, the president of the Kurdish government in the northern region of the country.

“Mr. Ocalan is working hard to find a process that could lead to a solution despite all the difficult conditions,” Keskin Bayindir of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) told reporters after the meeting in Iraq.

“He is working to remove this issue from the field of war and conflict and to establish a democratic and legal process” Bayindir added. “This roadmap will also stop the crises in the Middle East”, he further added.

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Reportedly, Ocalan’s plan is expected to be presented officially soon, possibly before the Kurdish New Year in March. Turkish nationalists have also offered a potential release if he renounces militancy, resulting in hope for a peace plan after nearly 10 years of stalled talks.

Ocalan was imprisoned in 1999, and is serving a life sentence at Imrali prison on the Turkish island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara. His organization has been engaged in an armed struggle against Turkey for decades.

The talk of potential peace comes at a time of violent tit-for-tat attacks against each other. The attacks included the US-backed, PKK-affiliated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) engaging in violent clashes with Turkish-backed extremist groups backed by air cover from Ankara in northern Syria.

Clashes between the SDF and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) force have been grinding on since the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government in December last year. The SNA was formed by Ankara in 2017 and has incorporated several violent extremist factions, such as Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam, into its ranks. Scores of ex-ISIS fighters and commanders have also been incorporated into the SNA, said media reports.

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Turkish airstrikes pounded several areas in the Aleppo countryside on 17 February. Kurdish journalist Agid Roj was killed in a Turkish airstrike near Tishreen Dam, a strategic site held by the SDF. It is where much of the intense fighting has been focused.

Turkey has earlier vowed to eradicate the PKK militia and its Syrian affiliates, the People’s Protection Unit (YPG), a major element of the SDF.

Last week, at least two Turkish soldiers and two SNA members were killed in SDF shelling of Turkish positions on Qarra Quzaq hill and surrounding areas, as reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Since the fighting began, at least 617 people, including civilians and combatants, have been killed, according to SOHR.

The SDF, formed in 2015. It is reportedly affiliated with a US-backed autonomous administration that has ruled parts of northern Syria for over a decade. Since the fall of Assad regime in Damascus, questions have risen over the fate of Kurdish factions in the new Syria, which is ruled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The organisation is head by Ahmed al-Sharaa, former al-Qaeda member.

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There has been several attempt between the two to reach an agreement. In 2019, several of Kurdish prisoners (nearly 3000) resort to months long hunger strike protesting against the years of solitary confinement of Ocalan, which was ended upon his call. It was in the same years he was allowed to see his lawyers for the first time in 8 years.

He has been sentenced to death for treason after his capture by Turkish agents in Kenya. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment when Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2002 at a time when it appeared close to securing membership of the European Union.

(With inputs from agencies)