Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters stand to attention during a ceremony in the Qandil area of northern, Iraq (Image credits: AP)
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group said on Sunday that it was withdrawing all its forces from Turkey to northern Iraq as part of a disarmament process.The group, which has waged an insurgency against Turkey for some four decades, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed, decided in May to lay down its arms after a call from its 76-year-old jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.
What has the PKK said?
In a statement from Iraq, the PKK said the withdrawal aimed to enable it to establish a “free, democratic and brotherly life” and was part of its efforts to advance the processes of disarmament and integration.It called on Ankara to take steps to facilitate the PKK’s transition into “democratic politics” by establishing laws on integration.”The legal and political steps required by the process … and the laws of freedom and democratic integration necessary to participate in democratic politics must be put in place without delay,” it said.”Significant steps need to be taken, legal arrangements for a process compatible with freedom,” senior PKK militant Sabri Ok told journalists at a ceremony. “We want laws that are specific to the process, not just an amnesty.”The group has already said it now wants to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority in Turkey by democratic means, as called for by Ocalan.The PKK has already been based in northern Iraq, having been driven beyond Turkey’s southeastern border in recent years. Its bases there continued to come under attack from Turkey’s military, which established several outposts in the region.
What effects could the withdrawal have?
Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, said on X that the PKK’s decision to withdraw was a concrete outcome of the goverment’s aim of making Turkey “terror-free.” He said the move would go toward shaping a “positive framework” for legal structures that are to be put in place by a parliamentary commission.The 48-member commission is also to decide the fate of Ocalan, who has been held in solitary confinement on Imrali prison island near Istanbul for some 26 years.The PKK has insisted on his release as part of its demands.The end of Turkey’s conflict against the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU, could have wider consequences for the region, for example, in neighboring Syria.US support for Syrian Kurdish forces that Turkey deems a PKK offshoot has caused tensions between the two Nato member states, which may now be assuaged.