Abdullah Ocalan, at the centre of the Imrali Delegation, February 2025

By Dr. Muhamad Sabir Kareem:

Part 1

History suggests that any peace process must include basic rules and conditions that are essential for the process to succeed. In studying the message delivered by Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurdish leader of North Kurdistan, in the final days of February 2025, we found significant shortcomings and incompatible elements in relation to the subject of our essay. These issues will be discussed below. However, before we proceed, it is important to address some key points related to this case.

Firstly, there is a crucial issue that needs correction in both academic and cultural discussions. The main identity of the PKK, or generally the Northern Kurdish movement for liberty, is not that of a terrorist organization, but rather a national liberation movement. Based on this fact, the peace process involves two sides that have been engaged in a difficult and protracted war for more than four decades. There is no doubt that the Kurdish side in this conflict has proposed several attempts to find a peaceful solution to end the war, especially since the 1990s. For example, on December 15, 1998, in a communication with Med TV, Öcalan called for PKK guerillas to lay down their arms in an effort to make peace with the Turkish state. The peace attempts in 2012 also failed to reach any conclusion, largely because the Turkish side, particularly the party of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, did not genuinely believe in ending the war. In contrast, the Kurdish side (PKK leaders) had offered many concessions, including the surrendering of heavy weapons.

The region has experienced significant and deep changes, particularly with the emergence of the ISIS war in 2014, the Hamas terror attack on Israel in October 2023, and the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria by December 2024. In response, the Turkish state, led by Erdoğan and his main ally, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has sought to maintain Turkish rule and interests in the region. This has involved preventing the Kurdish issue from evolving into an independent political force, as regional political changes pose a direct challenge to their control. These attempts by the Kurdish side led to the emergence of Öcalan’s peace message, which was announced on February 27.

Bio:

Dr. Muhamad Sabir Kareem is a lecturer at the University of Sulaymani in the College of Political Science. With a passion for academic research and political studies, he supervises MSc &PhD students’ research papers, guiding the next generation of scholars in the field. Dr. Kareem is the author of several influential works, including Contemporary Dictionary for Political Science (2024) and Pluralism and the effect of KRG’ Judicial system (2012).