The governor’s office in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır has banned a planned rally calling for the release of imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, citing public order and security concerns amid rising tensions linked to developments in Syria, Turkish Minute reported, citing the Anka news agency.
The rally, organized by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and scheduled for January 25 at İstanbul Square in Diyarbakır’s Yenişehir district, was initially planned for January 4 but postponed due to adverse weather conditions.
In a statement on Thursday the Diyarbakır Governor’s Office said all public gatherings, including demonstrations, marches and press statements, would be prohibited across the province from January 23 until January 26.
The governor’s office said the ban was based on an assessment that the rally could be used as a pretext for actions that might disrupt public order before, during or after the event.
The statement cited recent developments inside Turkey and in neighboring countries and their potential impact on the province, without elaborating.
The governor’s office decision comes amid rising tensions in the region over fighting in northeastern Syria, where Syria’s transitional government has pushed into areas long controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Turkey backs Damascus’s military campaign and considers the SDF an extension of the PKK, a group designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies. The DEM Party, however, accuses the Syria’s transitional government of launching what it called a genocide against Kurds in northeastern Syria with the backing of Turkey and international powers.
Calls for Öcalan’s release, who has been held in a prison on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara since 1999, have increased amid ongoing peace talks with the PKK.
The renewed peace process with the PKK was initiated in October 2024 by far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, a key government ally. Bahçeli publicly called on Öcalan to urge the militant group to lay down its arms.
He hinted that Öcalan could be released if he renounced terrorism and called on the PKK to lay down its weapons. Öcalan responded in February with a message calling on the PKK to disarm and disband.
The PKK decided in May to disband, disarm and end its armed campaign, saying it “has completed its historic mission” in line with Öcalan’s call.
Thirty PKK militants burned their weapons in a ceremony in northern Iraq in July, marking a symbolic first step towards ending the decades-long conflict with Turkey in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
The governor’s office decision came despite earlier comments by Bahçeli, who in December publicly signaled approval for the rally to go ahead.
“I believe there is nothing objectionable about the DEM Party holding a rally on January 4, 2026,” Bahçeli said at the time. “They can of course gather and voice their expectations, demands and views. What’s wrong with that?”
Bahçeli said he viewed the DEM Party’s efforts to position itself as a nationwide political party as “valuable” but stressed that a 2025 statement by Öcalan did not include a demand for his release from prison.
“That call is the only binding one for us,” Bahçeli said, adding that any stance by the DEM Party or PKK-affiliated groups contradicting that message could slow Turkey’s stated goal of a “terrorism-free Turkey,” the wording the government uses to refer to the peace talks with the PKK.
It is not known whether this new process will succeed this time as another attempt launched in 2013 collapsed two years later, sparking renewed clashes between the PKK and the Turkish armed forces.
