A day before Turkey’s parliament is set to debate a landmark piece of legislation aimed at winding down 40 years of armed conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the outlawed Kurdish group has issued sharp criticism of the bill, warning it will fail to deliver lasting peace without the release of its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The proposed bill, which enjoys cross-party backing from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the pro-Kurdish DEM party, forms the cornerstone of Turkey’s latest push to end decades of deadly fighting that has claimed at least 50,000 lives since the conflict began. The legislation does not offer a full blanket amnesty for PKK fighters. Instead, it pauses prosecutions and prison sentences for some offenses for a period between five and 10 years. If individuals covered by the law do not reoffend within that window, all active investigations are dropped and sentences are counted as completed. Serious violent offenses, including intentional homicide, are excluded from the protections of the bill, a carveout that pro-government media argue should bar Ocalan, who has served a life sentence since 1999, from any early release.
In an official statement published Sunday by the PKK-aligned ANF news agency, the group’s leadership condemned the legislation as fundamentally flawed. The statement argued that key proposals aimed at advancing democratic reform and a comprehensive solution to the long-running Kurdish political issue were completely ignored by lawmakers crafting the bill. The PKK also pointed out that the legislation frames the process solely around disarmament, but never explicitly references the “Kurdish issue” – a choice that the group says proves the proposal fails to address the root of the conflict at its core. Beyond demanding Ocalan’s release, the PKK also called for binding legal guarantees that former fighters who lay down their arms will be able to participate freely in Turkish political life without the threat of imprisonment for their political beliefs.
The PKK warned that every provision included in the bill would amount to nothing more than a “dead letter” if 77-year-old Ocalan, the group’s founding and longtime leader, is not granted release from prison. Ocalan’s path to release remains unclear: last year, he called on the PKK to disarm and disband in response to a new peace initiative launched by Turkish authorities in late 2024, but no official decision has been made on his future. The PKK formally announced its disarmament and disbandment plan last year in line with Ocalan’s call.
Not all Kurdish political figures have rejected the bill, however. Prominent former Kurdish opposition leader Selahattin Demirtas, who has been imprisoned in Turkey since 2016, threw his support behind the legislation Sunday. Demirtas, who previously served as co-chair of Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party, described the bill as a crucial moment for the country, saying he hopes the parliamentary debate will mark another critical step forward in this historic peace effort. If implemented successfully, Demirtas argued, the law will fundamentally and permanently transform the future of Turkey and its Kurdish region, bringing an end to more than 40 years of violence that has reshaped the lives of millions of people across the country. For decades, Kurds across Turkey and the wider region have held regular demonstrations calling for Ocalan’s release from prison.