ISTANBUL ,— The head of the Kurdistan Communities’ Union (KCK), a political umbrella group linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, Cemil Bayik, has claimed that the PKK will not lay down its arms unless the Turkey’s jailed Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan attends the PKK’s next congress.

Recently appearing on IMC TV, Bayık talked about the government’s assurance to the people that the PKK will lay down its arms as an act of propaganda ahead of the upcoming general election.

He said the government and Ocalan had recently agreed on a 10-page document which includes an item that the PKK lay down its weapons as part of an inclusive solution to the country’s decades-long Kurdish problem.

However, Bayik’s stance on the issue revealed that Ocalan is not the only actor to make such a vital decision as the laying down of arms.

When Bayik was asked if Ocalan sending a message to the next PKK congress would be enough for taking the weapons away, he responded: “No. We can have the congress whenever we want. But we don’t take this decision without our leader [Ocalan] attending the congress in person.”

Ocalan called on his followers in February to take a “historic” decision to lay down their arms, according to a statement on Saturday, a crucial step in Turkey’s drive to end a 30-year insurgency by Kurdish rebels.

Sirri Sureyya Onder, a lawmaker from parliament’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), read a statement from Ocalan on live TV that urged the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to attend a congress on disarmament in the spring months.

The United State welcomed last week a call for the PKK, to lay down its arms against the Turkish military.

The joint leader of pro-Kurdish HDP party, Selahattin Demirtas, warned that the Turkish government may be using a peace process with the Kurds as an election tool.

The Turkish state launched clandestine peace talks with the group in 2012 which led to the rebels declaring a ceasefire in March 2013.

Ocalan declared a cease-fire in 2013 and ordered the PKK to withdraw fighters to bases in Iraqi Kurdistan’s border region with Turkey. PKK says it keeps about half of its 7,000 fighters.

Since it was established in 1984 the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state in Turkish Kurdistan region in the southeast of the country.

But the PKK now limited its demands to establish an autonomous Kurdish region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds, who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 75-million population but have long been denied basic political and cultural rights, its goal to political autonomy. A large Turkey’s Kurdish community openly sympathise with PKK rebels.

The PKK is considered as ‘terrorist’ organization by Ankara and U.S. The PKK continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which overturned a decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the European Union’s terror list.

Read more about Turkish-Kurdish Peace Process

(With files from Cihan.com.tr | AFP | AA | Reuters | Agencies | Ekurd.net)

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