PKK Suspends Further Peace Steps, Demands Release of Abdullah Öcalan and Constitutional Recognition

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has announced it will take no further measures in the peace process with Turkey until Ankara frees its founder, Abdullah Öcalan, and grants constitutional recognition to the Kurdish people. Commander Amed Malazgirt made the declaration from a bunker in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq, saying the PKK had implemented all steps ordered by Öcalan and will now wait for the Turkish state to act.

"All the steps that leader Apo initiated have been implemented... there will be no further actions taken," Malazgirt said. "From now on, we will be waiting for the Turkish state; they must be the ones to take steps."

Malazgirt spelled out two core conditions: the release of Abdullah Öcalan and the constitutional and official recognition of Kurds in Turkey. He warned that without those changes the peace process cannot succeed.

Inside the Qandil bunker, commanders and fighters in military fatigues were pictured sitting in a heated room decorated with portraits of Öcalan and memorials to fallen comrades. Other sections of the mountain base include living quarters and separate facilities for women fighters. Journalists interviewed commanders using cameras provided by the group for security reasons.

Senior female commander Serda Mazlum Gabar said, "As long as the leadership is inside, the Kurdish people cannot be free. Nor can we, as guerrillas, feel free. Our path to freedom passes through the freedom of our leadership. We want the leadership to meet with the people."

Abdullah Öcalan, 76, has been held in solitary confinement on Imrali Island since 1999 and has been directing aspects of the peace process from his cell. A Turkish cross-party parliamentary committee tasked with preparing a legal framework for the peace talks recently visited him as part of preliminary consultations.

In recent months the PKK has taken several notable steps toward de-escalation. The group formally renounced armed struggle, held a public ceremony where about 30 fighters burned weapons in a symbolic gesture, and announced the withdrawal of forces from Turkish territory into northern Iraq, including from a key border area.

"We have committed to not using weapons against the Turkish state," Malazgirt said, while stressing that the PKK seeks a democratic struggle to defend Kurdish rights if political space opens in Turkey. At the same time, commanders said the guerrilla identity will be restructured rather than abandoned: it will undergo restoration and adapt to new methods while remaining a core form of their organization.

Turkey has engaged in indirect talks with the PKK and set up a parliamentary committee to lay groundwork for political integration and legal reforms. PKK leaders say they are monitoring those efforts closely and will respond to concrete, verifiable steps from Ankara.