Bahçeli calls for new roadmap in anti-terror campaign
Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahçeli has called for a new roadmap in the government’s “terror-free Türkiye” initiative, proposing a new status for jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to help facilitate the terror group’s disarmament.
“A structure should be built where Öcalan can maintain his influence over the organization instead of being the founding leader of the defunct PKK,” Bahçeli said in remarks published by daily Türkgün on May 18.
The MHP leader argued that keeping Öcalan imprisoned while granting him a new “social status” would help ensure the smoother implementation of the PKK’s disarmament process.
“This coordination does not encompass issues such as the leadership and representation of the Kurds, or the advocacy of ethnic and categorical rights,” he said.
