As the People’s Alliance furthers a new terror-free initiative to end PKK terrorism, the alliance’s leader says this is a historic opportunity for the country. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who supported the new initiative first unveiled by People’s Alliance member Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said it was a unique opportunity for the good of the Turkish nation.
Addressing his ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) provincial congress in his ancestral hometown, Rize, on Sunday, the president said one could not accomplish anything in politics without taking risks and their ultimate goal was a terror-free Türkiye.
“The outcome of steps we’ve taken is for our nation,” he told fellow members of the AK Party.
Erdoğan is no stranger to such initiatives and indeed, he was the first to introduce a “solution” or “reconciliation” process in the 2010s for an alternative solution to the terrorism issue that plagued Türkiye for decades. But MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, known for his staunch opposition to any negotiation with the PKK, surprised many when he called last year for a temporary release of the group’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan on the condition that he would call members of the group to lay down arms. Bahçeli insists it is not reconciliation with terrorists but simply an offer to end terrorism without more bloodshed. As Erdoğan previously said, Bahçeli says terrorists should either end their attacks or get ready “to be buried.”
This new “terror-free initiative,” as the MHP and AK Party call it, saw the first concrete step when two lawmakers from the Peoples’ Equality Party (DEM Party) visited Öcalan in the island prison where he is being held in the Marmara Sea recently. Lawmakers Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan conveyed a message from Öcalan that showed that he was willing to contribute to the initiative for the sake of “Turkish-Kurdish bonds.” The main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was initially cautious over the initiative, but later, its Chair Özgür Özel announced that they would endorse it if it is “sincere and transparent.” The Good Party (IP), formed by former MHP lawmakers, strictly opposes it. The initiative drew harsh reactions from several far-right circles, who claimed that Bahçeli would alienate nationalists.
Turkish authorities insist the initiative will not harm counterterrorism efforts. As a matter of fact, the army, police and Turkish intelligence have continued their counterterrorism operations against the PKK both in Türkiye and abroad uninterruptedly since Bahçeli made his first call. Thousands of terrorists were eliminated in operations in 2024. Political pundits see the initiative as part of Türkiye’s peaceful solution efforts to other problems plaguing its region, such as mediation efforts for the Russia-Ukraine conflict. For others, it is a last chance for the terrorist group to be further weakened in Syria after the fall of the Baathist regime, while its time of attacks against Turkish troops in Iraq is coming to an end thanks to stronger counterterrorism cooperation between Baghdad and Ankara, and Türkiye and Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) administration.
DEM Party lawmakers met Bahçeli on Jan. 2 in an unprecedented meeting at the headquarters of MHP to brief him about their meeting with Öcalan and they will brief other parties on Monday, including AK Party.
The PKK, which has killed thousands since it launched its first terrorist attacks in the 1980s, claims to fight for Kurdish self-rule and brainwashes the Kurdish population concentrated in southeastern Türkiye to draw recruits. Since the campaign of terrorism began, Türkiye had to resort to military tactics to suppress the PKK, especially in the 1990s. Under AK Party-led governments since the early 2000s, this policy continued for several years.
In the 2010s, the AK Party launched a “reconciliation process” to address fundamental issues exploited by the PKK, such as the rights of the Kurdish community. Positive steps by the government led the PKK to cease its attacks for a few years and “withdraw” to northern Iraq from the southeastern regions of Türkiye. Yet, efforts failed due to the PKK’s reluctance to further progress and the emergence of a Syrian wing of the terrorist group that exploited the security vacuum in war-torn Syria.
Öcalan has been serving a life sentence in a prison in Imralı, south of Istanbul, since his capture 25 years ago. Though the PKK picked new senior cadres after his capture, he is still a revered figure for the group, which refers to him as “leadership.” “Reinforcing Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood is a historic responsibility and is a matter of importance and emergency for all peoples,” Öcalan said in his statements quoted by the DEM Party. Öcalan also said it was essential for all political circles in Türkiye to take the initiative without being confined to “narrow calculations,” “act constructive” and “provide a positive contribution” for this new process to succeed. “I have the capability and resolve to contribute positively to this new paradigm empowered by Mr. Bahçeli and Mr. Erdoğan. My approach will be shared with the state and political circles. I am ready to take the positive step and make the call. Our efforts will advance the country to the level it deserves and will be a guideline for a democratic transformation,” Öcalan also said.
Renewed AK Party
On Sunday, Erdoğan also talked about the future of his party and the blow in the March 31 municipal elections that saw the AK Party conceding several strongholds to the CHP. Erdoğan said their goal was to raise their vote rate to 50% in upcoming elections. A general election is scheduled for 2028, while the CHP, encouraged by municipal vote gains, campaigns for an early election.
Erdoğan has pledged changes within the party’s cadres after the municipal losses and launched a congress process within the party that is scheduled to be concluded next month. In Rize, he highlighted the AK Party’s successful record as the ruling party in the past two decades and touted congresses as “a new period of resurrection.”
The president listed works for Rize under his government, from improvements in health care to infrastructure, and urged fellow members to correctly promote such services everywhere to counter the opposition’s propaganda. “We have so many accomplishments that must be told to the public. If you don’t, those on the other side will try to deceive people with their exaggerated public services that will not even come close to our accomplishments. You see the situation in (CHP-run) Istanbul and Ankara, and they are trying to polish an image of cities that they actually don’t have,” he told AK Party members. “We have to make their lies public,” he added.
The president also warned the party’s cadres not to ignore public complaints. “Whatever your post is, you cannot forward what a citizen asked you to do to another office, another person. It is unforgivable to do so. It may be a difficult task, but as president, I receive many complaints and have to make people’s complaints heard,” he said.
