Kurdish PKK leader says Israel secretly promised them a state for 30 years

Ocalan’s anti-Israel stance is well-known, as his group was based in the Bekaa Valley in the 1980s, cooperating with the leftist Palestinian liberation groups. In the document, Ocalan presents himself as the leader who could stop Israel from becoming a hegemonic power in the Middle East.

"Israel has been at this for 30 years. For three decades, Israel has been secretly promising us a state," Ocalan said during the meeting, according to the document.

He added that Israel was using the media to encourage Kurds to establish an independent state. "Whoever aligns the Kurds with themselves will gain dominance in the Middle East," he said. "They realized this before I did."

He also described an exchange of messages with then-Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir in 1982, when Ocalan was based in Damascus under the protection of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.

A series of Israeli governments lent political and military support to Turkey in the 1990s, establishing a close alliance with secularist generals at that time.

But under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the relationship has deteriorated, and Ankara has occasionally accused Israel of indirectly supporting the PKK.

In November, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar openly called for closer relations between Israel and Kurdish communities, saying that his country should reach out to Kurds and other regional minorities that are "natural" allies. Ocalan said the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad also contacted him in Moscow, where he was seeking refuge from Turkish authorities in 1998, telling him they could hide him even in Russia.