A senior official from Turkey’s ruling party on Tuesday dismissed a request by the commander of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to visit Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, saying the group must first abandon arms and stop posing a security threat to the country.
The comments came from Ömer Çelik, spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), after Mazlum Abdi, the top commander of the SDF, said he wanted direct talks with Öcalan on the prison island of İmralı.
Under normal circumstances, statements by the AKP spokesman would reflect only the ruling party’s position rather than the policy of the Turkish state, but in the past decade the line between Erdoğan’s ministers and party officials has blurred, making the distinction less meaningful in practice.
Abdi leads the Kurdish-led militia that controls much of northeast Syria and works closely with the US military in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Turkey, however, sees the SDF as the Syrian branch of the PKK, an armed group that has fought the Turkish state since the 1980s and is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
In an interview this week, Abdi said the SDF maintains informal communication channels with Turkey and wants them strengthened and formalized. He said several disputes, including the future of Kurdish fighters and control of oil-producing areas, require political dialogue involving Öcalan because of his longstanding influence over Kurdish movements.
Çelik rejected the idea of any visit and said the ruling party focuses on “actions, not rhetoric,” adding that Ankara wants to see concrete steps from the SDF if the group claims it does not seek conflict with Turkey.
He said the government believes the SDF must lay down arms as part of any future arrangement and insisted that Turkey’s security concerns “are not open to bargaining or delay.”
Abdi had argued that structured talks involving Kurdish groups, Damascus and Ankara could help stabilize the northeastern region, but Turkish officials say they will not accept any armed force linked to the PKK on their border.
The exchange comes after lawmakers from three parties in Turkey visited Öcalan on İmralı Island this week for the first time in years as part of a new initiative aimed at ending the country’s conflict with the PKK.
Officials in Ankara say the armed groups linked to the SDF are included in Turkey’s call to give up arms, arguing that the SDF is tied to the PKK and must also disband for the process to move forward.