Sarkis Hatspanian: Öcalan’s Letter Addressed to Turkish Authorities Rather Than the Armenian Nation

YEREVAN — Yesterday the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) penned a letter to the Istanbul-based Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos. Speaking to reporters today, publicist, analyst and expert of Turkish studies Sarkis Hatspanian said “it was addressed to the Turkish authorities rather than the Armenian nation.”

According to Hatspanian, Abdullah Öcalan does not want to spoil the relations with the special services of Turkey. “He does not want to startle Erdogan’s government by raising sharp pro-Armenian questions. In this way he sends a message to Turkish authorities, reminding that 2015 is coming close.”

Assessing Öcalan’s letter, Hatspanian said only one sentence of it is a novelty. “For the first time, the PKK leader labeled the events of 1915 as genocide.”

The letter blurs the situation, making no reference to the Kurdish role in the Armenian Genocide, the exile of Armenians and the occupation of Western Armenia, he said.

Hatspanian said the Kurdistan Workers’ Party has been recently speaking in favor of reconciliation with the Turkish authorities and has mostly adhered to an anti-Armenian position.

“Öcalan considers the fight of Kurds is the fight of other indigenous peoples. However, the movement he heads has never spoken about the condition of any of those peoples. Therefore, his words remain hanging in the air,” Sarkis Hatspanian concluded.