PKK apologizes to Germany for violent acts in 90s

“On behalf of the PKK, on behalf of our movement, I would like to apologize to the German nation. Such things will never happen again,” said Cemil Bayık, the co-chair of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), a supra organization that includes the PKK, during an interview with German broadcasters WDR and NDR on April 9. 

The PKK held violent rallies in the country in the 1990s, during which members of the organization had set themselves on fire and blocked highways to attract attention to their cause. 

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization in Germany and the European Union due to its armed conflict against Turkey. 

Bayık said they did not want to fight with Turkey anymore, sending out peace signals in the three-decade fight between armed members of the PKK and the Turkish military. 

“We do not want to fight with Turkey anymore. We say enough with fighting. Neither we nor the Turkish state have reached our goals through war,” Bayık said. 

The Turkish government is conducting an ongoing peace bid with Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned head of the PKK, in what is known as the Kurdish peace process. Öcalan had called for a cease fire in March 21, 2013 – the day of the start of spring, also known as Nevruz – and called for the laying down of arms in this year’s Nevruz celebrations.

The German broadcasters said the PKK was not currently striving to establish a separate state, but rather striving for a political solution.

The broadcaster also said the interview was conducted in a secret place in the Kandil Mountains of Northern Iraq, where the PKK is fighting against the jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).