Pro-Kurdish party urges Ankara to act after PKK disbands

By AFP
June 19, 2025
Protesters raise yellow flags and portraits showing the face of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Worker´s Party (PKK), during a demonstration in Qamishli, Syria, February 15, 2023. — AFP
Protesters raise yellow flags and portraits showing the face of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Worker´s Party (PKK), during a demonstration in Qamishli, Syria, February 15, 2023. — AFP

ISTANBUL: Leaders of the pro-Kurdish DEM party on Wednesday urged Turkiye to act swiftly to cement the peace moves after the Kurdish militant PKK ended its decades-long armed struggle.

“Turkiye doesn´t have a minute to lose, above all at a time of war between Iran and Israel,” said DEM co-president Tulay Hatimogullari, who said practical steps to bring about the dissolution of the PKK were moving too “slowly”.

Her remarks came on the sixth day of an expanding air war between Israel and Iran that has raised fears that efforts to repair broken ties between the Turkish state and the country´s Kurdish minority could grind to a halt.

“It´s time the government did what it needs to do,” said her co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan, echoing calls for an easing of the conditions for jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan who led the call for his militants to disarm.