ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s foreign minister said on Friday that peace talks between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are “proceeding well.”
“Thanks be to God, the peace process is proceeding well,” Hakan Fidan told Rudaw during a press conference in Berlin with his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul.
“Our work within the framework of this process continues, and European countries - especially Germany - have supported it positively,” he added.
In February, Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, called on his followers to lay down their arms and dissolve the organization he founded in 1978. The PKK complied with both steps by May. The group, rebranded as the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, has also taken further measures to advance the peace process, most recently withdrawing its fighters from the strategic Mount Zap in Duhok province, an area Turkish forces long struggled to capture.
A delegation from the Turkish parliamentary commission overseeing PKK disarmament and peace talks held its first meeting with Ocalan earlier this week. The 51-member commission was formed to establish a legal framework for negotiations between Ankara and the PKK.
A senior official from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said on Thursday that Ocalan should be able to communicate directly with the public and political parties in Turkey as part of the peace initiative aimed at ending decades of conflict.
Syria
The Turkish and German foreign ministers also touched on Syria during their press conference. Wadephul said Germany advocates for the rights of all ethnic and religious groups in the country a year after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad ended nearly 14 years of civil war.
“We support all components of Syria and believe its sovereignty must be preserved,” Wadephul said in response to a question from Rudaw’s Alla Shally about Berlin’s support for Syrian Kurds.
He said that Berlin has already conveyed to Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa that it “supports a sovereign, multinational Syria.”
Fidan said Ankara supports a strong central government in Damascus.
“The strength of the Syrian government and the preservation of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are essential,” he said.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Damascus have been engaged in talks for months to finalize a March agreement to integrate the SDF into the Syrian state’s military structure. However, the sides remain divided as the SDF seeks integration as a unified force, while Damascus insists on absorbing fighters individually into regular army units.
Kurds and other minority groups in Syria have called for decentralization, expressing concern about a consolidation of power by the interim government.
Alla Shally contributed to this article from Berlin.