Scepticism and cautious hope as PKK takes historic step to disband

[ad_1] Orla Guerin Senior worldwide correspondent

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/4524/live/28d4cca0-2f4c-11f0-8cf7-7d76a7dd97b5.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/4524/live/28d4cca0-2f4c-11f0-8cf7-7d76a7dd97b5.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/4524/live/28d4cca0-2f4c-11f0-8cf7-7d76a7dd97b5.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/4524/live/28d4cca0-2f4c-11f0-8cf7-7d76a7dd97b5.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/4524/live/28d4cca0-2f4c-11f0-8cf7-7d76a7dd97b5.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/4524/live/28d4cca0-2f4c-11f0-8cf7-7d76a7dd97b5.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/4524/live/28d4cca0-2f4c-11f0-8cf7-7d76a7dd97b5.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/4524/live/28d4cca0-2f4c-11f0-8cf7-7d76a7dd97b5.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Reuters A crowd of protestors hold yellow flags featuring the face of Abdullah Ocalan." class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> Reuters Abdullah Ocalan, the chief of the PKK, referred to as on the group to disarm in February.

After 40 years, with 40,000 individuals killed, and with out securing a Kurdish homeland, the banned Kurdistan Employees Occasion, the PKK, is ending its struggle towards the Turkish state.

This alerts the top of one of many longest conflicts on this planet - a historic second for Turkey, its Kurdish minority, and neighbouring nations into which the battle has spilled over.

A spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling celebration mentioned it was an necessary step in the direction of a rustic freed from terror.

However what is going to the PKK get for disarming and disbanding? To this point the federal government has made no guarantees – publicly at the least.

Sheltering inside a tea store from a sudden violent hail storm that battered the traditional metropolis of Diyabakir, Necmettin Bilmez, 65, a driver, was sceptical about what may comply with.

"They [the government] have been tricking us for 1000's of years," he mentioned.

"After I get an ID card in my pocket saying I'm Kurdish, I'll consider the whole lot shall be solved. In any other case, I do not consider on this."

Sitting close by on a small woven stool, Mehmet Ek, 80, had a distinct view.

"This has come late," he mentioned.

"I want it had occurred ten years in the past. However nonetheless anybody from any facet who will cease this bloodshed, I salute them," he mentioned, tipping the highest of his flat cap.

"This battle is brother on brother. The one who dies within the mountains [PKK] is ours and the soldier [from the government] is ours.

"We're all shedding, Turks and Kurds."

He needs an amnesty for PKK fighters – like many right here - and the discharge of jailed Kurdish politicians.

"If all that occurs it is going to be an exquisite peace," he mentioned.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/e920/live/dd3250f0-2f65-11f0-8c05-017bb1fbcddf.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/e920/live/dd3250f0-2f65-11f0-8c05-017bb1fbcddf.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/e920/live/dd3250f0-2f65-11f0-8c05-017bb1fbcddf.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/e920/live/dd3250f0-2f65-11f0-8c05-017bb1fbcddf.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/e920/live/dd3250f0-2f65-11f0-8c05-017bb1fbcddf.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/e920/live/dd3250f0-2f65-11f0-8c05-017bb1fbcddf.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/e920/live/dd3250f0-2f65-11f0-8c05-017bb1fbcddf.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/e920/live/dd3250f0-2f65-11f0-8c05-017bb1fbcddf.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="BBC/Ozgur Arslan A headshot of Mehmet Ek wearing a cap. He looks to the right of the camera. " class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> BBC/Ozgur Arslan Mehmet Ek informed the BBC the transfer ought to have been taken earlier as he referred to as for jailed Kurdish politicians to be launched.

On this majority Kurdish metropolis in south-eastern Turkey - the de facto Kurdish capital - we discovered a muted response to PKK's announcement.

The town has been scarred and reshaped by the battle.

Turkish forces and the PKK battled within the coronary heart of Diyarbakir in 2015. You'll be able to nonetheless see the rubble of buildings flattened by the Turkish military.

Many native individuals informed us they welcomed peace, or the concept of it, and wished no extra deaths - Turkish or Kurdish.

"Nobody has achieved something," mentioned Ibrahim Nazlican, 63, ingesting tea within the shade of the towering metropolis partitions, which have guarded Diyarbakir since Roman occasions.

"There may be nothing however hurt and loss, on this facet and on that facet. There aren't any winners."

The battle has ranged from the mountains of northern Iraq – which grew to become PKK headquarters in recent times - to Turkey's greatest cities.

Exterior an Istanbul soccer stadium in 2016, a PKK affiliate carried out a double bombing killing 38 cops and eight civilians. Many Kurds and Turks are hoping that is the top of a darkish chapter, which has claimed 40,000 lives

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/618e/live/67a11cf0-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/618e/live/67a11cf0-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/618e/live/67a11cf0-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/618e/live/67a11cf0-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/618e/live/67a11cf0-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/618e/live/67a11cf0-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/618e/live/67a11cf0-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/618e/live/67a11cf0-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images Ocalan stands at an angle to the camera with his hands on his hips. Male fighters stand behind him. " class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> Getty Pictures Some have referred to as for the discharge of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan who's at the moment imprisoned on an island off of Istanbul.

The PKK resolution lay down its arms adopted a name in February by its jailed chief, Abdullah Ocalan, who mentioned there was "no different to democracy".

For now, the 76-year-old stays in his cell in an island jail off of Istanbul, the place he has been held since 1999.

To his supporters, he stays a heroic determine who has put their trigger on a worldwide agenda. They need him launched.

Menice, 47, is amongst them. She insisted his launch was the important thing to a brand new daybreak for the Kurds, who account for as much as 20% of the Turkish inhabitants.

"We would like peace, but when our chief just isn't free, we are going to by no means be free," she mentioned.

"If he's free, we are going to all be free and the Kurdish downside shall be solved."

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/2ad9/live/05143b30-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/2ad9/live/05143b30-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/2ad9/live/05143b30-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/2ad9/live/05143b30-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/2ad9/live/05143b30-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/2ad9/live/05143b30-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/2ad9/live/05143b30-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/2ad9/live/05143b30-2f4b-11f0-a657-b593c9d46647.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="BBC/Ozgur Arslan Menice stands holding framed photographs of two young men. She looks down at the photograph on her right. " class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> BBC/Ozgur Arslan Menice misplaced her eldest son throughout a Turkish airstrike after he joined the PKK.

She is surrounded by household photographs of family members who've died combating for the PKK - which is classed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the UK, the US and the EU.

She has misplaced 5 family members together with her brother and her oldest son Zindan.

He joined the PKK at 17, and was useless at 25, killed in a Turkish airstrike three years in the past.

Menice's eyes fill with tears as she tells us how he used to assist her with the housekeeping.

His path might have been mapped out from beginning.

"We named him Zindan [meaning cell] as a result of his father was in jail when he was born," she informed us.

One giant {photograph} hangs on the wall reveals Zindan alongside his brother, Berxwendan, who adopted his footsteps "up the mountain" to the PKK, when he reached the age of 17.

Berxwenden is now 23. His mom didn't know if he was alive or useless till he despatched his household a photograph of himself throughout Ramadan in March.

Menice is hoping her surviving son might now come again.

"I hope Berxwendan and his buddies will come dwelling. As a mom, I need peace. Let there be no killings. Hasn't there been sufficient struggling for everybody?"