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A senior Kurdistan Workers’ Party commander told AFP the group will take no further steps in the peace process with Turkey, urging it to advance negotiations and free PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan.”All the steps the leader Apo has initiated have been implemented… there will be no further actions taken,” commander Amed Malazgirt told AFP on Saturday in a bunker in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq.”From now on, we will be waiting for the Turkish state and they have to be the one taking steps,” he said.The group has two demands, he added.”First, the freedom of leader Apo… without this, the process will not succeed. The second is the constitutional and official recognition of the Kurdish people in Turkey.”Female senior commander Serda Mazlum Gabar told AFP that “as long as the leadership is inside, the Kurdish people cannot be free. Nor can we, as guerrillas, feel free.””Our path to freedom passes through the freedom of our leadership,” she added.Ocalan, 76, has led the peace process from his cell on Imrali island, where he has been held in solitary confinement since 1999.Turkish lawmakers from a committee tasked with fleshing out the peace process with the Kurds visited Ocalan earlier this week.In recent months, the PKK, which maintains a rear base in the mountains of northern Iraq, has taken several historic steps towards ending its decades-old fight against Turkey that has claimed some 50,000 lives.In May, the PKK formally renounced its armed struggle against Turkey. It then held a ceremony in northern Iraq during which 30 fighters burned their weapons in a symbolic move to show their commitment to the peace process.Last month, the group said it had begun withdrawing all of its forces from Turkish soil into northern Iraq.Earlier this month, the PKK announced their forces had withdrawn from a key border area in northern Iraq.”We have committed to not using weapons against the Turkish state,” Malazgirt told AFP on Saturday.Ankara began indirect talks with the PKK late last year, with Ocalan in February urging the group’s militants to lay down their weapons and embrace democratic means to advance the Kurdish cause.Turkey has set up the cross-party parliamentary commission to lay the groundwork for the peace process and prepare a legal framework for the political integration of the PKK and its fighters. “By establishing this committee, the Turkish state has made a positive move, but it is not the only action needed. We are closely monitoring this mission,” Malazgirt said.The PKK says it wants to pursue a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority.But “the guerrilla is also the prototype of free life, the prototype of free humans, the prototype of free women”, Serda Mazlum Gabar said.”Therefore, we can continue the struggle with different methods, but the guerrilla does not end.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on trial facing corruption charges, announced Sunday he had submitted a pardon request, saying the long-running cases were tearing the country apart.US President Donald Trump wrote to Israeli President Isaac Herzog earlier this month, asking him to pardon Netanyahu, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the ongoing court cases.”The trial in my case has been ongoing for nearly six years, and is expected to continue for many more years,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.He said he wanted to see through the process until acquittal, “but the security and political reality — the national interest — dictate otherwise. The State of Israel is facing enormous challenges”.”The continuation of the trial is tearing us apart from within, arousing fierce divisions, intensifying rifts,” he added. The cases against Netanyahu have exposed divisions in Israeli society between his supporters and opponents.Netanyahu’s backers have dismissed the trials as politically motivated.The premier and his wife Sara are accused in one case of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewellery and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favours.He is also accused of attempting to negotiate more favourable coverage from two Israeli media outlets in two other cases.- ‘Extraordinary request’ -Netanyahu said the demand for him to testify on a thrice-weekly basis had “tipped the scales”.”Three times a week is an impossible requirement,” he said.”I am certain, like many others in the nation, that an immediate end to the trial will greatly help to lower the flames and promote the broad reconciliation that our country so desperately needs.”Herzog’s office confirmed it had received Netanyahu’s pardon request.”This is an extraordinary request which carries with it significant implications. After receiving all of the relevant opinions, the president will responsibly and sincerely consider the request,” the head of state’s office said in a statement.In September, Herzog indicated that he could grant Netanyahu a pardon, saying in an interview that the prime minister’s case “weighs heavily on Israeli society”.Netanyahu, 76, is Israel’s longest-serving premier, having spent more than 18 years in the post across three spells since 1996.During his current term, which started in late 2022, Netanyahu proposed far-reaching judicial reforms that critics say sought to weaken the courts.Those prompted massive protests that were only curtailed after the onset of the Gaza war in October 2023.Likud leader Netanyahu has said he will stand in the next elections, due to be held before the end of 2026.- ‘Only the guilty seek pardon’ -Opposition leaders lambasted Netanyahu for requesting a pardon without admitting guilt in the graft trials, and urged him to step down from political life in return for a pardon.”I call on President Herzog: You cannot grant Netanyahu a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse and an immediate withdrawal from political life,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a video on X.Yair Golan, head of the left-wing opposition party The Democrats, echoed the allegation. “Only the guilty seek pardon,” he wrote on X. “The only exchange deal on the table is that Netanyahu will take responsibility, admit guilt, leave politics and free the people and the state — only then will unity be achieved in the nation.”Conversely, several members of the governing coalition backed Netanyahu’s request. Defence Minister Israel Katz urged Herzog to grant the pardon to end the “deep rift that has accompanied Israeli society for nearly a decade, and to allow the country to reunite”.Following media speculation that Netanyahu may walk back some controversial judicial reforms in exchange for an end to his trials, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, wrote on X: “The commitment of Religious Zionism to reform in the judicial system will continue in a substantive manner, regardless of Netanyahu’s pardon.””It is clear to every reasonable person that Netanyahu has been persecuted for years by a corrupt judicial system that fabricated political cases against him,” Smotrich added.

Pope Leo XIV headed to Lebanon on Sunday with a message of peace for the crisis-hit nation after wrapping up a four-day trip to Turkey’s tiny Christian community that focused on unity within the Church. Ending the first part of his maiden overseas tour since being elected leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, Leo boarded the papal plane which left Istanbul for Beirut, where he was expected to arrive around 3:45 pm (1345 GMT). The two-nation tour is the first major international test for the first American pope, who was elected in May and whose understated style contrasts with that of his charismatic and impulsive predecessor, Francis.Although Leo’s visit drew little attention in Turkey, a Muslim-majority nation whose Christian community numbers only around 100,000, his 48-hour stopover is eagerly awaited in Lebanon, a religiously diverse country of 5.8 million inhabitants.Since 2019, Lebanon has been ravaged by crises, including an economic collapse, a devastating port blast in Beirut in 2020 and the recent war with Israel, with Leo expected to bring a message of peace to the multi-faith country, whose last papal visitor was Benedict XVI in 2012. In Turkey, Leo’s visit was firmly focused on calls for greater unity among different branches of the Church. He was the fifth pontiff to visit Turkey after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014 and began his trip on Thursday by holding talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Then he travelled to Iznik to mark 1,700 years since the First Council of Nicaea, one of the early Church’s most important gatherings, which he celebrated at an ecumenical service alongside Patriarch Bartholomew I, leader of the world’s 260 million Orthodox Christians.Saturday saw Leo holding mass in Istanbul with thousands of worshippers braving heavy rain to celebrate with him, many of whom had travelled across Turkey to join the multilingual service that left participants and observers deeply moved by its beautiful and haunting choral interludes. – ‘My greatest dream’ -On his last day, Leo met privately with a bereaved father whose 14-year-old Italian-Turkish son died in February after being stabbed at a market in Istanbul. “Today I cried, but I cried tears of joy, I came for Mattia Ahmet,” Italian chef Andrea Minguzzi said of his son in remarks to reporters afterwards, thanking the pope for meeting him and “fulfilling one of the greatest dreams of my life”. Then he went to the Armenian Cathedral where he had words of encouragement for the largest of Turkey’s Christian communities that counts some 50,000 members, thanking God “for the courageous Christian witness of the Armenian people throughout history, often amid tragic circumstances”.It was an apparent nod to the massacres the Armenians suffered at the hands of the Ottoman troops in 1915-1916 which has been qualified as genocide by around 30 countries, although Turkey firmly rejects the term. “The Armenian people do not forget the popes who raised their voice in our times of suffering, who stood with Christian communities in danger and who upheld truth when the world hesitated,” Armenian Patriarch Sahak Mashalian said.”We pray that the Lord may use the immense moral voice and influence of papacy through Your Holiness for the safety of these vulnerable Christian communities, especially in the very region to which you will travel later today,” he said. “May the good Lord make you an angel of peace in those bleeding lands to herald glad tidings of enduring peace among war-worn peoples.”

Pope Leo XIV wraps up a four-day trip to Turkey on Sunday after a warm welcome by its tiny Christian community, before heading to Lebanon with a message of peace for the crisis-mired nation. On the last day of his visit, his first trip overseas since being elected leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, Leo participated in several Sunday services in another demonstration of his desire for greater unity among different branches of the Church. At the Armenian Cathedral, Leo said had words of encouragement for the largest of Turkey’s Christian communities that counts some 50,000 members, thanking God “for the courageous Christian witness of the Armenian people throughout history, often amid tragic circumstances”.It was an apparent nod to the massacres the Armenians suffered at the hands of the Ottoman troops in 1915-1916 which has been qualified as genocide by around 30 countries, although Turkey firmly rejects the term. “The Armenian people do not forget the popes who raised their voice in our times of suffering, who stood with Christian communities in danger and who upheld truth when the world hesitated,” Armenian Patriarch Sahak Mashalian said.And he prayed Leo’s influence would help ensure the safety of “vulnerable Christian communities” in the Middle East, saying: “May the good Lord make you an angel of peace in those bleeding lands to herald glad tidings of enduring peace among war-worn peoples.”The American pope then went to take part in a divine liturgy — the Orthodox equivalent of mass — at the Patriarchal Church of St. George, its glittering interior echoing with chants and ancient liturgy, the air filled with incense. But before all his public duties, Leo met privately with a bereaved father whose 14-year-old Italian-Turkish son died in February after being stabbed at a market in Istanbul. – ‘My greatest dream’ -“Today I cried, but I cried tears of joy, I came for Mattia Ahmet,” Italian chef Andrea Minguzzi said of his son in remarks to reporters afterwards, thanking the pope for meeting him and “fulfilling one of the greatest dreams of my life”. “I wrote a letter two weeks ago and he received us today. I asked him for his support for our mission of peace and brotherhood. He is praying. This may be the best thing for us,” he said, fighting back tears. Leo was to have lunch with Patriarch Bartholomew I, the leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, a day after they signed a joint declaration pledging to take “new and courageous steps on the path towards unity”.Despite doctrinal differences that led to the Great Schism of 1054 which divided Christians between the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Eastern Orthodox Church, the two sides maintain dialogue and hold joint celebrations.Pope Leo — the fifth pontiff to visit Turkey after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014 — began his trip by holding talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Then he travelled to Iznik for an ecumenical celebration marking 1,700 years since the First Council of Nicaea, one of the early Church’s most important gatherings. In Istanbul on Saturday, thousands of worshippers braved heavy rain to celebrate mass with him, with many travelling across Turkey to join the multilingual service that left participants and observers deeply moved by its beautiful and haunting choral interludes. He was expected to leave Istanbul at 1145 GMT and fly to Beirut for a visit lasting until Tuesday.The six-day two-nation trip is the first major international test for the first pope from the United States, who was elected head of the Catholic Church in May and whose understated style contrasts with that of his charismatic and impulsive predecessor, Francis.Although Leo’s visit drew little attention in Turkey, a Muslim-majority nation of 86 million whose Christian community numbers only around 100,000, it is eagerly awaited in Lebanon, a religiously diverse country of 5.8 million inhabitants.Since 2019, Lebanon has been ravaged by crises, including an economic collapse, a devastating port blast in Beirut in 2020 and the recent war with Israel.