İmralı meeting is correct decision: PKK Europe head

ISTANBUL

Zübeyir Aydar, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party's (PKK) European head. DHA photo

Zübeyir Aydar, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party's (PKK) European head, has denied recent reports that his group is against negotiations between Kurdish deputies and PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, Doğan News Agency has reported.

"The PKK is a whole and its follows its leader. It doesn't have sects. Meeting with our leader, constructing dialogue and negotiating with him is the right decision. We have said for years that our interlocutor is Öcalan. The dialogue which has been started with him is our demand. It is unthinkable for us to be against it. Any other comments are manipulations of psychological warfare," he said.

"What we are against to is the jail of İmralı [where Öcalan is held]. For this dialogue to continue properly and to reach a conclusion, our leader has to be freed. This is our demand," he said.

Ayla Akat Ata, a Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy, and Ahmet Türk, an independent deputy and co-chair of the umbrella group Democratic Society Congress (DTK), met with Öcalan on İmralı on Jan. 3.

There were subsequent reports that negotiating with Öcalan to stop militant activity was insufficient and that other sects had to be convinced as well.

The PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.