Senior PKK/KCK Figure Bayık Warns Peace Process Will Stall Without Clarity on Öcalan's Status

Cemil Bayık, a senior figure on the PKK-linked KCK executive council, said Turkey's 'Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Integration' — the framework legislation parliament passed in August to enable PKK disarmament — was 'incomplete' and its language 'deeply flawed.' He warned the peace process would stall if Ankara pursued only the group's disarmament while leaving democratic reforms and the status of jailed PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan unresolved, noting the law excludes roughly 230 senior PKK figures from returning to Turkey, who would instead be housed in a secure zone near Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq. Bayık said responsibility for any collapse of the process would fall on the Turkish government if democratic steps did not follow disarmament.