SAEDNEWS: The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has begun the first steps towards disarmament, closing a chapter on a four-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.
A small ceremony was being held on Friday in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, where 20 to 30 PKK fighters were destroying their weapons rather than surrendering them to any government or authority. The symbolic process is being conducted under tight security and is expected to unfold throughout the summer.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed the development, declaring it as “totally ripping off and throwing away the bloody shackles that were put on our country’s legs”. Erdogan also said the move would benefit the entire region.
The move follows an announcement in May by the PKK that it would abandon its armed struggle.
For most of its history, the PKK has been labelled a “terrorist” group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
More than 40,000 people were killed between 1984 and 2024, with thousands of Kurds fleeing the violence in southeastern Turkey into cities further north, Al Jazeera reported.
In a video aired earlier this week but recorded in June by the PKK-linked Firat News Agency, the group’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan described the moment as “a voluntary transition from the phase of armed conflict to the phase of democratic politics and law”, calling it a “historic gain”.
Ocalan has been held in solitary confinement on Imrali Island in Turkey since his capture in 1999. Despite his imprisonment, he remains a symbolic figure for the group and broader PKK offshoots across the region.
The disarmament is being closely monitored by members of Turkey’s Kurdish DEM party, as well as Turkish media. Further phases will take place at designated locations involving coordination between Turkey, Iraq and the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq.
The effect of the conflict has been deeply felt not only in Turkey but across neighboring countries, particularly Iraq, Syria and Iran, where the PKK and its affiliates have maintained a presence.
