Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a plenary session at the European Political Community (EPC) Summit in Budapest, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP)
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ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s key nationalist ally urged jailed PKK militant group leader Abdullah Ocalan to explicitly announce the group’s disbandment after his next expected meeting with the country’s pro-Kurdish political party.
The remarks by nationalist Devlet Bahceli came after a rare meeting between officials from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and Ocalan last week.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkiye, has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.