Turkey’s outlawed Kurdish rebel leader is back — thanks to his nemesis

A political earthquake is shaking Turkish politics.

After a lifetime of denouncing separatist militants, on Tuesday, the country’s most prominent nationalist politician issued a surprise invite to a jailed Kurdish leader to address parliament.

Devlet Bahçeli — a political veteran and close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — called Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), to the Turkish legislature in order to publicly announce the group’s dissolution and lay down arms.

Highlighting the political complexities that surround Turkey and the Kurds, five people were killed in an attack at the Turkish Aerospace Industries headquarters in Ankara on Wednesday, just a day after Bahçeli’s remarks.

The Turkish interior minister said it was “highly likely” the perpetrators were members of the PKK, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU. The country’s air force hit PKK targets in northern Syria and Iraq late Wednesday night in retaliation.

Bahçeli’s intervention, however, has opened the door on a surprise return to the fray for Öcalan.

“If the terrorist leader’s isolation is lifted, let him come and speak … Let him declare that terrorism is over and the organization disbanded,” Bahçeli said in a speech to members of parliament from his Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). 

Bahçeli has consistently styled himself the PKK’s sworn enemy, and his words came as a bombshell.

Erdoğan signaled he was aware of Bahçeli’s bold move, saying in a televised speech on Wednesday: “We hope this unique window of opportunity that the ruling coalition is offering to end the terror will not be sacrificed to personal agendas.” 

Öcalan has been serving an aggravated life sentence for treason and separatism, in an island prison on the Marmara Sea since 1999. He had been banned from visits or talks with his lawyers or family for 44 months, but after Bahçeli’s speech the conditions of his isolation were eased.

Since its formation in 1984, the PKK has sought an independent Kurdish state and expanded political rights for Kurdish people.

Peace talks to end the 40-year conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK — which has cost more than 40,000 lives — started in 2012 but collapsed in 2015. 

Öcalan’s nephew Ömer Öcalan, an MP for the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, visited the imprisoned figurehead on Wednesday and shared a message on his X account.

“The isolation continues. If the conditions are right, I have the theoretical and practical power to pull this process from the ground of conflict and violence to that of law and politics,” Öcalan said through his nephew.

But some commentators reckon this week’s deadly attack in Ankara greatly complicates the Kurdish move by Erdoğan and his allies.