The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a designated terrorist group, has begun withdrawing all its forces from the Turkish border to Northern Iraq as part of a disarmament process agreed upon by both sides earlier this year.
The group has carried out hundreds of terror attacks inside Turkey in the past four decades and is designated as a terrorist organisation under the Turkish constitution. Türkiye has suffered more than 40,000 casualties in the past four decades due to terror attacks carried out by the PKK.
The group in May decided to lay down its arms after a call from its 76-year-old jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan. In a latest statement from Iraq, the PKK said the withdrawal aimed to establish “free democratic and brotherly life” and was part of its efforts to advance the processes of disarmament and integration.
It also called on Ankara to take necessary 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.
The development is likely to have immense positive reverberations on the region as the more than four-decade-old insurgent movement finally comes to an end. Confirming the development, Spokesperson for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, Omer Celik, said on X that the PKK's decision to withdraw was a concrete outcome of the government's aim of making Turkey "terror-free".
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 neighbouring Syria.
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