On December 20, 2024, the United States scrapped the $10 million bounty for the arrest of Ahmed al Sharaa. The crimes Al Sharaa committed while he affiliated with Al Qaeda are without doubt, but the Biden administration both recognizes that he today is the de facto leader of Syria and believes his reform to be sincere.
The Syrian Kurdish administration has become an oasis of peace and tolerance in the region.
Contrast that with the U.S. posture regarding Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). That Öcalan is the de facto leader of tens of millions of Kurds is without doubt. Kurds not only in Turkey and Syria, but also in Iraq and Iran openly honor him and read his writings. Öcalan’s chief rival, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani, is a tribal leader whose followers number only two million at most. PKK reform is also obvious. Its initial Marxism and violence are characteristics of the past. The Syrian Kurdish administration has become an oasis of peace and tolerance in the region. Nor is it fair to suggest moral equivalency between Al Sharaa and Öcalan. Al Sharaa lionized Al Qaeda founder Usama Bin Laden; Öcalan followed the trajectory of African National Congress founder Nelson Mandela.
If Washington at Turkey’s urging can embrace pragmatism toward Al Sharaa and his Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham group, why should it not embrace the same precedent to reconsider its stance toward Öcalan and the PKK?
On October 8, 1997, the State Department designated the PKK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Today, not only the United States, but the European Union and Turkey designate the PKK as a terrorist organization. U.S. hypocrisy is rife, given its antagonism toward the PKK while Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf openly meets with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, still a U.S.- (and European Union- and UN-) designated terror group.
The PKK has consistently sought ceasefires and peace talks for more than a quarter-century. It is neither on the United Nations terror list nor has carried out any attacks beyond targeting the Turkish army and security forces operating against it. It has openly engaged in talks in Oslo and then at İmrali. In recent weeks, new proposals have circulated. If Turkish nationalist leader Devlet Bahçeli can call for Öcalan’s release and invite him to the Turkish parliament to talk peace, why should the Biden administration or incoming Trump administration keep the PKK on its terror list?
For Washington to be more Turkish nationalist than the most ardent Turkish nationalists hampers peace.
For Washington to be more Turkish nationalist than the most ardent Turkish nationalists hampers peace. Kurds need direct contact with both Öcalan and their leaders holed up in Qandil amidst Turkish drone bombardment to build trust in peace. Following Öcalan’s message last week after meeting with pro-Kurdish members of Turkey’s parliament, Kurdish social media users were cynical, quoting an apocryphal saying attributed to ancient Greeks: “When Turks talk of peace, prepare for war.” This cynicism is a reflection of what happened in 2015 when the Turkish state reversed the peace process as it saw Kurds internationally gaining a voice.
When al-Sharaa was carrying out war crimes against Syrians and fighting the United States, the PKK sent guerrillas to the front lines in Sinjar, Kobane, Kirkuk, and Makhmour to stop the Islamic State rampage.
Delisting the PKK, or at least lifting bounties on its three leaders, would have several immediate benefits. First, it would strengthen the U.S. partnership with Kurdish groups, particularly in Syria and Iraq, by addressing a longstanding grievance. This move also would signal to the Kurds that rather than have the United States throw them under the bus, Washington can be a reliable ally.
Delisting the PKK also would weaken Turkey’s ability to use the PKK terror designation as a mechanism to undermine U.S. interests in Syria. For over a decade, Turkey has leveraged the PKK’s status to pressure Washington into limiting its support for Rojava, as Syrian Kurds often call their region.
President-elect Donald Trump is not afraid to break diplomatic china or reverse his previous course. Just as State Department Arabists warned him against the Abraham Accords, a move that would have denied him an important diplomatic victory, so too has the naysaying of the State Department’s Turkey lobby become the biggest impediment to the resolution of the Kurdish problem.
