2 groups may resist Öcalan’s call to lay down arms

Turkish newspaper Hürriyet’s columnist Abdulkadir Selvi has commented on the call made by Abdullah Öcalan, the founding leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), to lay down arms and dissolve the party, Ermenihaber reports.

He specifically noted: “While the PKK is expected to lay down its arms, I don’t want to pour water into a cooked soup, but it is said that two groups may oppose the PKK’s decision to lay down arms: one is the wing cooperating with Iran, and the other is the Dersim group.”

He added that there isn’t much time left before the PKK’s congress, and if someone in Qandil resists the decision to lay down arms, they will be opposing Öcalan.

“This will be a war against the will of the organization’s founder, and anyone who opposes the decision to lay down arms will face the consequences,” Selvi stated.

Öcalan made a similar call on Feb. 27, when a seven-member delegation from the opposition Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) visited Imralı Island in the Sea of Marmara. Öcalan has been sentenced to life imprisonment for 26 years.