Salihaddin Soro: leader Öcalan offered to dissolve PKK for Kurdish rights in 1998

October 9, 1998, is considered the beginning of the international conspiracy against Leader Abdullah Öcalan. Twenty-eight years have passed since that date. Despite all this time having elapsed, the plans, regional and international cooperation, and policies implemented within the framework of this conspiracy continue to have an impact at various levels. Nevertheless, Leader Abdullah Öcalan became aware of the attempts to conspire against him from the very first day and began a struggle and resistance in a new and innovative manner.

As a result of twenty-eight years of resistance against the international conspiracy, as well as the conditions of isolation and detention on İmralı, Leader Abdullah Öcalan brought the century-old unresolved Kurdish question out of deadlock and placed it on the table for a historic and political solution. Today, with the development of the peace process and discussions surrounding a democratic society, his position, political message, and legal and international status have become among the top priorities for Türkiye and the Middle East.

Journalist Salihaddin Soro answered ANHA agency’s questions about the October 9 conspiracy, its historical repercussions, and the discussions taking place regarding Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s status in the new phase

As a journalist who closely followed the course of the international conspiracy that began on October 9, 1998, how do you assess the events from the withdrawal from Syria through the stages that unfolded in Greece and Russia? What political and international calculations did you see behind the developments of those days?

On the occasion of the International Day of Peace, on September 1, 1998, Leader Abdullah Öcalan declared a ceasefire. On September 13, he reiterated his call for a ceasefire before the international public in a message broadcast via MED TV. In that message, he said that he was ready to dissolve the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) if the state recognized the rights and identity of the Kurdish people. (Those who wish may consult this message in the archives.)

At that time, international powers, particularly Britain and the United States, were seeking to create chaos and crises in Türkiye and the Middle East in order to complete their intervention in the region. Attempts to intervene against Saddam Hussein between 1991 and 1993 had failed, as these powers wanted to exploit the Kurdish liberation movement led by Leader Apo as a pretext to eliminate it and to ignite a new war between Kurds and Turks in the Middle East.

Leader Apo was aware of this. Since 1993, he had sought to resolve the Kurdish question peacefully through dialogue. That year, Turgut Özal initiated a mediation process brokered by the late Mam Jalal Talabani. A ceasefire was declared in March 1993. However, Turgut Özal died under mysterious circumstances in April, and the process collapsed. After that, every time they attempted to advance this process, internal and external powers intervened.

Following the ceasefire declared on September 1, 1998, which had been designated as the International Day of Peace, the process reached its climax. Leader Apo declared a ceasefire. After the ceasefire was announced, the Turkish army, under the command of one of its commanders, Atilla Ateş, reached the Syrian border and threatened Syria with war. Some individuals went to meet with the parties involved, while Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak went to Damascus and met with Hafez al-Assad. Other powers also entered into negotiations, until October 9 arrived, when Leader Apo left Syria.

Leader Apo left Syria in order to thwart this plan; however, he encountered a plan involving NATO. One of the NATO member states is Greece. Before Leader Apo left Damascus, a high-level delegation from Greece, consisting of prominent figures, writers, academics, politicians, and journalists, went to Damascus to visit him. They presented him with Greece’s highest honor and told Leader Apo: “If you ever wish to visit our country, our doors are open to you.”

At that time, the conspiracy began to take shape. From September 1998 until October 9, for approximately one month, Leader Apo searched for a way to act upon his invitation to Greece. However, on October 9, when Leader Apo left Damascus and arrived at the Greek airport, he found none of the friends who had invited him. The head of the intelligence service then came and told Leader Apo: “You cannot enter our country,” and he was deported. Thus, the conspiracy began.

There were many reasons for this. England wanted to shape the Kurdish and Middle Eastern issues according to its own interests; America wanted to use the Kurdish question as a pretext for intervening in the Middle East; and it also wanted to exploit the presence of Leader Apo and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Syria as a pretext for intervening there. In short, this was a broad and deeply rooted plan. The plan that the Muslim Brotherhood and the al-Nusra Front (Jabhet al-Nusra) formulated in 2011 was essentially what they had wanted to implement in 1999.

They wanted to carry out this planned intervention in the Middle East through Leader Apo and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. But every time the Leader thwarted this intervention, the interveners’ plan was frustrated, and as a result, Leader Apo became the target.

In the 1990s, a book was published in America that became a bestseller. The book was titled The Man Who Started the War, and it dealt with the outbreak of the Third World War. The protagonist was named “Cihan,” and the story revolved around a Kurdish leader who leaves Turkey, goes to Syria, establishes an organization, blows up dams, and triggers a major war in the Middle East. In the first week of October 1998, American warships arrived in the Gulf of Alexandria and threatened Syria either with removing Leader Apo from there or with intervention.

Before Leader Apo left, a group of British journalists went there. Using laser technology and the GPS coordinates available at the time, preparations were made for a missile strike from those ships directly against his home in Damascus. Leader Apo himself said: “They photographed everyone except me.” Preparations for a military and geopolitical intervention in the Middle East against the Kurds were being carried out at a high level. Leader Apo was aware of all of this.

At that time, he had two options: either go to the mountains to join the fighters, or go to Europe. He described his decision not to go to the mountains by saying: “If I had gone, all my friends would have been wiped out, and I would have ignited a dirty war. That is why I did not choose the mountains. The probability was extremely low, and I chose Rome, Europe, as my base. I wanted the Kurdish question to emerge in Europe. I wanted to go there and resolve the problem through politics and diplomacy. On this basis, I set out.”

However, this journey continued as part of an international conspiracy involving the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Mossad, and other forces. On February 15, 1999, Leader Apo was captured in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and handed over to Turkish intelligence.

Over the past twenty-eight years, with Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s resistance in Imralı, his defenses, and the prospects for a solution he has put forward, it appears that the discussion is no longer merely a matter of conspiracy, but has turned into a discussion about Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s political and legal status. In your view, what is the historical and political significance of the “status of Leader Abdullah Öcalan”? Has his case become the focus of attention?

From February 15, 1999, until today, we have been living through a different era: the era of captivity and imprisonment in İmralı. In the face of this era, Leader Apo and the Kurdish people have waged a great struggle and resistance. The captivity of leaders, pioneers, and resistance figures throughout Kurdish history has always been extremely painful, as was the case with Sheikh Saeed and many others. But the resistance led by Leader Apo alone in Imralı for twenty-eight years is a rare example in history and a great act of resistance.

In fact, the captivity of leaders, pioneers, and resistance figures throughout Kurdish history has always been painful and tragic. We all remember how many Kurdish leaders were swiftly defeated during the uprisings. Their defeats brought all the struggles and uprisings to an end, despair spread among the people, and the movements suffered deep and tragic fragmentation. As Leader Apo says: “If only these uprisings had never happened.” Because every small effort that ends in failure deepens despair and the loss of will among the Kurdish people. All the leaders spoke their final words beneath the gallows, their fate remained unknown, and the uprisings were defeated.

But the greatest resistance, led by Leader Apo alone, with tremendous patience, tireless struggle, and an unwavering will, changed the course of history over the past two centuries and transformed it into a new cycle. When Leader Apo was captured, a research and strategic institution in England issued a statement saying: “The consciousness of the peoples of the Middle East, particularly the Kurds, is built around leaders and figures of authority. Their leaders and figures of authority are like the poles of a tent. That pole is Öcalan; and now that he has been captured, the movement will collapse within six months.”

But today, we are entering the twenty-eighth year; instead of this pillar collapsing, it has grown stronger, greater, and more prosperous.

To achieve this, it is necessary to study the reality of the Leader and Leader Apo in depth, to investigate it, and to understand what distinguishes it from our previous history. We do not need to go back to ancient history. During the last century of the Republic’s existence, Sheikh Said and Seyid Rıza delivered their final words during the uprisings before the gallows. But Leader Apo moved history from the gallows and the graveyard into the light. He carried many people, society, identity, and the struggle into a new stage.

This phase is itself the struggle and resistance of Imralı, which Leader Apo calls the “third birth.” This is an entirely different birth in terms of thought, consciousness, model, society, and organization. The Kurdish people have emerged onto the world stage not as a tribe, family, or clan, but as a nation with a will of its own. All of this is the product of Leader Apo’s thought, ideas, model, organization, and comprehensive development. In fact, his situation resembles that of the prophets.

It can be said that it is similar to the story of the Prophet Joseph in the well. There, he demonstrated tremendous will, waged an unprecedented struggle, and contributed to the emergence of the Kurdish people on the international stage through a new system. The Kurdish people emerged with an entirely new model through the struggle for women’s rights, the idea of internationalism, environmental protection, social organization, and the project of the democratic nation.

Therefore, Leader Apo’s struggle must be understood step by step. At the first court hearing, everyone expected him to challenge the state in the traditional manner. But he did not. Instead, he directly challenged capitalist modernity. His first defense in 1999 was based on the concept of a “democratic republic.” He did not present the conventional defense that we had become accustomed to throughout history; rather, he defended his position from the perspective of consciousness and thought. Leader Apo said: “They want to ignite a blind war between the Kurdish and Turkish peoples through my person; I will never be a tool in this blind war.”

From that day until today, he has continued to struggle with seriousness and dedication, raising this struggle to the highest levels. This work has taken shape in five pioneering works: two volumes on capitalist civilization, The Sociology of Freedom, The Crisis of the Middle East, The Solution of Democratic Civilization, and the fifth book, Manifesto for a Democratic Solution, which addresses the struggle against cultural genocide.

On February 27, 2025, with the issuance of the Call for Peace and a Democratic Society, this work entered a new phase, and we are living through this phase today. The struggle of nearly twenty-eight years in Imralı has brought the identity of the Kurdish people to a level that can no longer be denied nationally, regionally, or internationally. In the face of nationalism, racism, religion, sexism, and the classical nation-state form of socialism, he developed an intellectual and systemic alternative and a new consciousness, constituting an unprecedented birth.

Today, within the framework of the peace and democratic society process, the framework law, the parliamentary monitoring committee, the Imralı meetings, and the role of Leader Abdullah Öcalan in this process are being discussed. As a journalist who has witnessed this process from 1998 until today, what steps should be taken in the next phase regarding the status of Leader Abdullah Öcalan? And what would this step mean for achieving lasting peace in Turkey?

Leader Apo is the master mind, pioneer, and principal representative of this process. For this process to move forward and reach a dignified outcome, it is necessary to formally define Leader Apo’s role and message in the legal, judicial, political, and moral spheres. Part of this has been established, but it has not yet been completed.

The Kurdish freedom movement took the first step in this process: the call issued on February 27, 2025; the declaration of a ceasefire; the decisions of the March and May congresses; the laying down of arms on July 11, 2025; and then the withdrawal of forces from the borders. All of these steps were taken decisively.

But the essential second step is for the state to take its own steps as well. On the state’s side, various committees have been formed under government coordination. However, if a permanent peace and political transformation are to be coordinated, the state must legally recognize Leader Apo and define his status. This is because the main reason behind this fifty-year struggle and its impact on hundreds of thousands of people is directly linked to his leadership and its institutionalization. Therefore, without resolving the status of the principal party concerned, it is impossible to reach a legal solution and lasting peace.

The state says today that it will resolve the problem, but it does not treat Leader Apo as it claims it does. It must treat him as it says it will. Therefore, a legal, judicial, and political definition must be established. His status must then be recognized and addressed accordingly.

War cannot be waged under equal conditions; its dynamics are different. But peace can be achieved under conditions of equality. Without equality, there can be no peace. The conditions must be equal. On one side is the state, which possesses all the means and capabilities; on the other is Leader Apo, who remains imprisoned alongside only five comrades in Imralı.

Issues such as the Kurdish question, which has persisted for sixty-seven years within the two-hundred-year and hundred-year histories of the republic, cannot be resolved in this manner, through a statement issued every month or every forty days.

Leader Apo must be reassured, his team must have effective administrative capacity, his position must be clearly defined, and he must be able to communicate with the media, politicians, and his movement. He must also be able to address parliament, Turkish society, and academic circles. The state must create these conditions as well.

For this to happen, Leader Apo’s status must be defined, after which he can submit an appeal. They now say that the fighters will not lay down their arms and that the Leader will therefore be unable to issue the call. Once these legal procedures have been completed and the appropriate conditions have been created, Leader Apo will issue the call.

After the call is issued, the National Security Council (MGK) must approve this law for its implementation. For the law to be implemented and the process to continue, the only condition is to clarify Leader Apo’s status. This issue is the key to the process and the strategy.

In the future, the Kurdish people and other peoples will continue their struggle in every sphere through work and organization. Their actions will strengthen Leader Apo’s position. The responsibility and accountability lie with the state.

ANHA