After calling from a phone dangling from a tree, he leads a team of AFP journalists into a bunker under the Qandil mountains, where they have been granted rare access to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rear base in northern Iraq.
"A peace process doesn't mean leaving the mountains," said Serda Mazlum Gabar, a 47-year-old commander with her long, rust-coloured hair and unfailing smile.
"Even if we leave, we will live the same way," she added. "Nature doesn't scare me, but I wouldn't feel safe walking around a city, with its cars, smoke and traffic."
Answering a call from the group's imprisoned founder Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK has taken historic steps in recent months towards ending its decades-old fight against Turkey that has claimed around 50,000 lives.
The group formally renounced its armed struggle. Thirty of its fighters even burned their weapons in a symbolic move, although many fighters based in Qandil carried rifles during AFP's visit.
For decades, the PKK has found sanctuary in mountains in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.
Even if fighting has stopped, the guerrilla lifestyle won't end. It will rather adapt to new "peaceful" ways, the commander said.
"We were not forced into this life. We chose it," she added.
- 'Not one place' -
At the entrance, a large fan is attached to a duct that runs into a concealed passage, ventilating fresh air to the hidden bunker.
The tunnel then opens into a broader corridor where PKK members and commanders dressed in their traditional military dress -- olive green fatigues or dusty-coloured baggy sirwal pants and vest -- line up to greet visitors.
The corridor branches out to several rooms. One, its entrance decorated with fresh plants and strings of lights, is the quarters for women fighters.
Iraq's mountains have recently welcomed new arrivals -- fighters who withdrew from Turkey to show the group's commitment to the peace process.
Among them is Vejin Dersim who joined the PKK at only 23 and had spent most of her time in southeastern Turkey.
Now 34, she has withdrawn to Iraq's mountains.
"Leaving was very emotional. It is a very special place there, especially because we were closer to leader Apo," she said, referring to Ocalan, who has been held in solitary confinement on Turkey's Imrali island since 1999.
Her comrade Devrim Palu, 47, joined the movement in 1999 and has recently returned to Iraq.
"In our movement, it doesn't matter where you are fighting, and one doesn't stay in one place," he said in a soft, low voice.
Today is the time for change, he said.
He added that the PKK is capable of changing the nature of the conflict and transition from war to peaceful engagement.
- 'Eyes closed' -
Over decades, the PKK -- still formally designated a "terrorist group" by the United States and the European Union -- has gone through several periods of peace talks with Turkey.
They have gone through several seismic shifts from starting as a separatist movement to gradually becoming advocates for Kurdish equality in Turkey.
It now says it is entering a new phase by pursuing a democratic path to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority.
According to Devrim Palu, it is generally easier to be based in Iraq because the top commanders are closer, and news arrives firsthand.
In the bunker that AFP visited, the walls are adorned with pictures of Ocalan and fallen fighters.
In a kitchen, PKK members knead dough to make lahmajun, a thin pizza-like bread topped with meat. Others watched TV, drank tea or chatted in the corridors.
Qandil has been home to the PKK for years -- a place that offered greater refuge than the mountains of southeast Turkey.
At first, fighters hid in caves, then began carving and digging dozens of their own well-maintained bunkers. Qandil became their headquarters.
"I could drive these mountains with my eyes closed," one member said, skillfully navigating the rugged tracks at high speed in the pitch-dark night.
PKK urges Turkey to free Ocalan to advance peace process
Kandil, Iraq (AFP) Nov 30, 2025 -
A senior Kurdistan Workers' Party commander has told AFP the group will take no further steps in the peace process with Turkey, urging it to advance negotiations by freeing 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 (Ocalan)... without this, the process will not succeed. The second is the constitutional and official recognition of the Kurdish people in Turkey."
In the depths of a well-ventilated bunker carved into the mountains, PKK commanders and fighters in military fatigues sat on the floor of a heated room adorned with portraits of Ocalan and some of the group's fallen fighters.
Others chatted in the tunnel that branched off to rooms that included designated quarters for women fighters.
AFP conducted interviews with commanders using cameras supplied by the group itself, as external technical equipment was not allowed to be used for security reasons.
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.
"We want the leadership to meet with the people," 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.
- Historic steps -
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 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 committee 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.
"If the ground for democratic politics were opened in Turkey, we would all want to carry out this struggle there. We are ready for this," Serda Mazlum Gabar said.
But "the guerrilla is also the prototype of free life, the prototype of free humans, the prototype of free women", she said.
It "must also restructure itself, undergo restoration, and make revolutionary changes.
"Therefore, we can continue the struggle with different methods, but the guerrilla does not end."
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