Bahçeli calls PKK leader's call to disband 'valuable, important'
ANKARA
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has welcomed an appeal by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan for the terror group to disarm and dissolve itself, calling it a "valuable and important" statement.
"The Turkish nation is writing a new history. A terror-free Türkiye, a peaceful Türkiye, a superpower Türkiye is a goal that will be achieved immediately, not tomorrow, and is entrusted to our political honor," Bahçeli said in a written statement issued on March 1.
The message by Öcalan, serving a life sentence on the prison island of İmralı off Istanbul, was read by the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) during a televised event on Feb. 27.
"A historic opportunity has opened for Türkiye in such chaotic conditions and circumstances," Bahçeli said, referring to ongoing political turmoil and armed conflicts.
“The statement penned in İmralı is valuable and important from beginning to end.”
Bahçeli described the Turkish people as "soldiers of a noble embrace that is centered far above regional, linguistic and cultural differences."
"Finally, the dawn of a terror-free Türkiye in the new century has come, and thus the sunrise of national peace and tranquility is just around the corner," he said.
"The call was made to all components of the separatist organization. Their compliance and success will add strength to Türkiye's power in the new century, and will make the thousand-year-old brotherhood more agile and steel."
The DEM Party's three subsequent visits to Öcalan over the course of two months were the first since members of the pro-Kurdish party’s predecessor, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), met with him in April 2015.
His engagement with politicians became possible after Bahçeli invited him to come to the parliament to renounce terror and disband PKK.
Erdoğan backed the appeal as a "historic window of opportunity."
PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union.
