Kurdish PKK to lay down arms in big step towards ending Turkey conflict

After 40 years of armed struggle against the Turkish state, the PKK will hold the PKK on Friday to celebrate a symbolic initial step in placing its arms.

The process of disarmament under the strict security in Iraqi Kurdistan will begin, and it is expected to take all summer.

The President of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, praised this step as “completely tearing and the bloody restrictions that were placed on the legs of our country.”

About 40,000 people have been killed since the conflict began, and the Kurdistan Workers Party has been included as a terrorist group in Türkiye, the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom. Disarmament will not only be in Türkiye but in Iraq, Syria and Iran.

A small group of members of the Kurdistan Workers Party will throw their weapons at a ceremony near Soleimania in Iraqi Kurdistan, before returning to their bases.

For security reasons, the exact location has not been revealed, although it is believed that members of the opposition -supporting Turkish opposition party will be there, even if there are no other Turkish political parties.

Disarmament will continue after that in the coming months in the points created with the participation of Turkish and Iraqi regional governments and Kurdistan.

In a video clip, the long -awaited Kurdish Workers Party leader, Abdullah Oaklan, said that “a voluntary transition from the stage of armed conflict to the stage of politics and democratic law.” He has been in solitary confinement on the small island of prison in Emali, southwest of Istanbul, since it was captured in 1999.

This is not the first attempt of peace that involves Türkiye and the PKK, but this is the best hope so far that the armed struggle that began in 1984 will end.

Originally, a Marxist group, the Kurdistan Labor Party installed weapons inviting an independent country inside Türkiye.

In the nineties, they instead called more self -independence for the Kurds, who make up about 20 % of the population.

OCALAN announced the ceasefire in 2013, and urged the PKK forces to withdraw from Türkiye. The Dolmabahis Convention in 2015 was supposed to bring the democratic and linguistic rights of the Kurds, but the fragile armistice collapsed among the devastating violence, especially in the cities dominated by Kurdish in the southeast, including Diacir.

The Air Force in Türkiye targeted PKK bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Several military campaigns also targeted the Kurdish forces in Syria.

In Ankara, the government excluded other talks until the Kurdistan Workers’ Party laid its arms. This is now about to happen.

In October 2024, a prominent national leader and a major ally of Uruguin named Devlet Baheli began an operation that the government described as “Türkiye free of terrorism.” The leader of the PKK urged imprisoned to call for the solution of the banned group. He suggested that he pave the way for his release from Emali Island.

The Turkish government launched talks with Oaklan via the pro -men’s Dem party, and Then in February, his historic call came to the presence of the PKK to solve itRead by two DEM deputies who have just returned from a visit to the prison island.

“All groups must put their arms and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party must melt itself,” he read the speech of Oaklan.

He said that the PKK was first formed because “democratic policy channels were closed,” but the positive references of Davlet Bhasli and Erdogan have created the right environment.

The Kurdistan Workers Party has followed the progress of Uklan, announced a ceasefire and later announced that it had “completed its historical mission”: The Kurdish issue can now be resolved through democratic policy. “

President Erdogan said it was “an opportunity to take a historical step towards demolishing the wall of terrorism” and met with politicians who support men in April.

As the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the eucalyrs are still suffering from many Turks, even after 26 years in solitary confinement.

However, he still plays an important role in the eyes of the Kurds.

“I think he really has this power, it is a major symbol of many Kurds, not everything,” says Ghost Jongren, a 41 -year -old conflict specialist at the University of Waginingn, in the Netherlands.

Two days before the disarmament began, Ocalan appeared on the video for the first time since it was equipped more than 20 years ago.

Speaking for seven minutes, he addressed the banned group: “I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons. I invite you to put this principle into effect.”

OCALAN was wearing a Lacoste shirt, referring to its permanent importance, the shirt went virus and running out the websites.

After Friday, the scene will move to the Parliament of Türkiye in Ankara, where a committee will be established to take decisions on the following steps for the government.

Since the summer vacation is just around the corner, there are no concrete decisions for several months, when the deputies vote on the recommendations of the committee and his President Erdogan is the final statement.

What is happening to Abdullah Ocalan was not yet clear. The government says that its conditions in prison can be reviewed when the operation is revealed, but any chance of release will be left to the last stages.

Erdogan’s AK party began to change the constitution, and there was speculation that this means that Erdogan would be able to run for the presidency again when his final term is running out in 2028.

AKP and Pro-Kurdish Dem denies that there is any link between the peace process and the reconstruction of the constitution, but if Erdogan gets DEM support, it will have a greater opportunity to pay.

Erdogan is lagging behind in the polls, but his main rival for the opposition, the mayor of Istanbul, Ikram Emamoglu, is in prison accused of corruption, which is what he denies, and more of the mayors of the opposition municipalities were arrested as part of a campaign last week.