NEWS CENTER - Journalist Fatih Altaylı's interview with Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan was published for the first time after 28 years. Abdullah Öcalan had said: " As long as there is dialogue, we will lay down all our arms tomorrow.”
The first part of the 30-minute interview that Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan conducted with journalist Fatih Altaylı in Bar Elias, Lebanon in 1997 was published for the first time after 28 years.
The interview, published on the Özgür Düşünceler website, covers the "Susurluk Accident" that took place on 3 November 1996 in the Susurluk district of Balıkesir, the gang structures within the state and Abdullah Öcalan's insistence on peace. The interview was prevented from being published when it was filmed on the grounds of "Articles 8 and 30 of the Anti-Terror Law".
In the interview, Öcalan assessed the 1996 Susurluk car crash as a significant turning point in Turkish history and drew attention to gang activity and drug connections within the state. He made comprehensive criticism of assassination attempts, interstate networks, drug trafficking, and the destructive effects of these structures in the region, using the metaphor “a state within a state.”
The Kurdish leader made claims regarding the village evacuations, unsolved murders, and their social consequences that took place in the 1990s, describing the economic and social devastation experienced by the victimized people. He shed light on the roles of the state and various political actors in these processes, arguing that gangs had entered into corrupt relationships with politics.
One of the most striking parts of the interview was Öcalan’s call for a solution: “The obstacle is not the PKK. The British Prime Minister says, ‘Let the IRA lay down their arms and we are open to any kind of dialogue.’ I am declaring this now. As long as there is dialogue, we will lay down all our arms tomorrow.”
Questioning the state's will for peace, Öcalan expressed doubts about the decision-making capacity of political counterparts, stating that there is no decision-making power in Turkey.
Öcalan said, “Let them kill me, but let there be decision-making power. Now everyone is passing the buck. There is no decision-making power. Some say it's a national security issue, some say it's the government, some say it's the parliament, and now gangs have emerged. There is no decision-making power. I say let's love our Turkey. Let's truly save our Turkey. Let's save the Kurds too.”