PKK will not return to military campaigns: Former senior intelligence official

ISTANBUL

ÖMneş who retired from National Intelligence Organization (MİT) in 2005 is known to have played an important part for launching the previous rounds of talks between the government and the PKK, including talks held in Oslo, Norway between 2009 and 2011. Hürriyet photo

Although the ongoing peace process in Turkey could face hurdles in the shape of disagreements, it is likely that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will not revert to fighting, a former senior intelligence official has hinted. “We could be faced with the activity sporadic groups that would split from the PKK inside and outside Turkey, but this would not change the basic fact [that PKK will not fight],” former deputy undersecretary of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Cevat Öneş told BBC Turkish in an interview published April 12.
 
Regarding the PKK militants’ withdrawal from Turkey, Öneş said that the most likely scenario would be for them to first go to camps in northern Iraq. “Separate conditions have to be constituted for the handing over of arms. So I think that they will [stay in the camps] with their arms [after the withdrawal],” he said.
 
Öneş added that although Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had made a very clear call for an unarmed withdrawal from the militants in order to avoid possible confrontations, it was very difficult for the PKK to control the actions of all their members. “We can understand that [PKK’s jailed leader] Abdullah Öcalan is in favor of an unarmed withdrawal, but some militants might just cross the border with their arms. There is no possibility of controlling this.”
 
Öneş emphasized that integration into Turkish politics did not mean 'dissolution' of the PKK, pointing out that this process was likely to be a very long and difficult one. “The reorganization and the change of mentality are of substantial importance for a dissolution. It will all depend on the new staff and the struggle inside the organization."