STORY: PKK's jailed leader calls for dissolution, disarmament
SHOOTING TIME: Feb. 27, 2025
DATELINE: Feb. 28, 2025
LENGTH: 00:00:55
LOCATION: ISTANBUL, Türkiye
CATEGORY: POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the press conference
2. SOUNDBITE (Turkish): PERVIN BULDAN, DEM Party member
3. various of the press conference

STORYLINE:

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), called for disarmament and the dissolution of the organization, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Party (DEM Party) announced on Thursday in Istanbul.

Pervin Buldan, a party member, read Ocalan's statement at a press conference, following the DEM Party delegation's visit to the PKK leader on Thursday at his prison on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara, off Istanbul.

SOUNDBITE (Turkish): PERVIN BULDAN, DEM Party member
"All groups (affiliated with PKK) must lay down their arms, and the PKK must dissolve itself. I take on the historic responsibility of this call. Hold your congress and make a decision for integration with the state and society."

Before the announcement, the DEM Party delegation showed a photo of their meeting with Ocalan holding the statement.

The statement is seen as a potential move to end the PKK's more than 40-year-long insurgency against the Turkish state, which has claimed over 40,000 lives.

The meetings between DEM Party officials and Ocalan, held three times since December, are part of a Turkish government initiative aimed at ending the insurgency, which began in 1984.

Ocalan, who has been held in near-total isolation in Imrali since 1999, founded the PKK in 1978. The PKK is designated as a terrorist group by Türkiye, the United States, and the European Union.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Istanbul, Türkiye.
(XHTV)