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Turkish officials attended the burials of five people killed in a terror attack Wednesday as Ankara responded by bombing numerous targets hours later.
At the same time, there are indications that jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan may be willing to renounce violence against the Turkish state and disband his organization.
The Wednesday attack targeted state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), killing five and injuring 22. Officials claimed it was “very likely” that the PKK was behind the incident.
Turkey announced that its forces had hit “47 terrorist targets” in Syria and Iraq overnight and pledged more attacks would follow.
Turkey, the EU and the US all label the PKK a terrorist organization.
Speaking from the BRICS summit in Russia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday’s attack had only “strengthened Turkey’s determination and resolve to eliminate terrorism.”
Ocalan ready for a change after 25 years of solitary confinement?
All of this has played out against the backdrop of possible talks between Ankara and the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan.
Ocalan, who co-founded the group, has been in solitary confinement at Istanbul’s Imrali island prison since 1999.
On Tuesday, Devlet Bahceli, an ally of Erdogan and the leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), suggested possible parole for Ocalan if he would renounce violence and disband the PKK.
Ocalan is serving a life sentence and was granted his first visit in more than four years this week.
After the visit, Ocalan’s nephew Omer, a lawyer for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equity and Democracy Party (DEM) — the third largest party in Turkey’s parliament — said his uncle was “in good health.”
He also reported that Ocalan had given him a message, saying, “if conditions allow, I have the necessary theoretical and practical power to shift this process from the arena of conflict and violence to one of law and politics.”
Media sources close to the government reported Ocalan as saying that he was, “ready to lay down his arms.”
The DEM, whose support Erdogan needs if he is to see through his plan to change the Turkish constitution to allow himself to remain in power indefinitely, condemned Wednesday’s attack, pointing out that it had come at a time when, “Turkish society was talking about a solution and the possibility of dialogue.”
The most recent attempt at peace talks between the two sides failed in 2015, opening a bloody new chapter in a conflict that began in 1984.
The fight to establish an autonomous Kurdish state has claimed tens of thousands of lives since it began 40 years ago.
js/lo (AFP, dpa, Reuters)