The leader of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli, a coalition partner of President Erdogan, recently made controversial remarks regarding Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed PKK leader held in isolation on Imrali Island.
“If the isolation of the terrorist leader is lifted, let him come and speak at the DEM Party group meeting in Parliament. Let him announce the end of terrorism and the dissolution of the organization. If he shows this determination and resolve, legal arrangements can be made to grant him the right to hope, and let the path be opened wide for him to benefit from it,” said Bahceli.
The day after Bahceli’s call for Ocalan to announce the PKK’s dissolution, attackers detonated explosives and opened fire on the premises of TUSAS, the Turkish state-owned aerospace and defense company, killing five people and wounding several others in Ankara, Turkey’s capital.
The PKK claimed responsibility for the assault but stated that the action was unrelated to current political debates in Turkey. They described the attack as a response to the “genocidal practices, massacres, and isolation policies of the Turkish state authority in Kurdistan.”
TUSAS designs, manufactures, and assembles both civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and other defense and space systems. These UAVs are used against Kurdish militants within Turkey and across the border in Iraq.
In retaliation for the attack on the TUSAS facility, Turkey announced it had conducted numerous operations targeting northern and eastern Syria.
Turkey justified these operations by claiming that the assailants involved in the Ankara attack had infiltrated from Syria, asserting that Turkish forces were responding to threats from armed groups based and trained there.
Following the attacks, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan issued a message in response to Bahceli’s call: “The isolation continues. If conditions are met, I possess both the theoretical and practical capacity to shift this process from a path of conflict and violence to one of legal and political solutions.” This message was conveyed through his relative, Omer Ocalan, a DEM Party MP who was allowed to visit him after Bahceli’s unexpected call for the Kurdish leader.
Political commentators suggest that Turkey’s revisit of the Kurdish question is strategically influenced by regional developments. The Turkish government is reassessing its position on the Kurdish issue amid shifting geopolitical dynamics, particularly with recent conflicts involving Iran, Israel, and the United States.