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Kurdish PKK burns weapons amid push for peace deal with Türkiye

Louise Greenwood

Europe;Turkey

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Fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been destroying their weapons at a ceremony in Northern Iraq.

It follows a decision by the group in May to disarm after four decades of conflict with the Turkish government.

Militant fighters have thrown their weapons into a symbolic fire at a location in the mountains northwest of Sulaymaniyah early on Friday. The region has been home to the PKK for the past decade, where the group has sought refuge from the Turkish state.

The event comes after the PKK's jailed chief Abdullah Ocelan recently announced that the armed phase of the struggle with Ankara was over.

Speaking by video link from his island prison of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara, Ocelan told supporters the time had come for the Kurdish struggle for autonomy to be "voluntarily replaced by a phase of democratic politics and law."

An armed PKK fighter places a weapon to be burnt during a disarming ceremony in Iraq./ Handout/Reuters
An armed PKK fighter places a weapon to be burnt during a disarming ceremony in Iraq./ Handout/Reuters

An armed PKK fighter places a weapon to be burnt during a disarming ceremony in Iraq./ Handout/Reuters

It's the culmination of months of secret negotiations between the ruling Adalet ve Kalkinma Party of President Erdogan and Kurdish fighters.

Erdogan, who is ruling in coalition with the right wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said that after 40 years of conflict that Türkiye was "ripping off and throwing away the bloody shackles that were put on our country's legs."

The details of any deal with the PKK have not been revealed, but Erdogan has pledged to reboot the Kurdish peace process after disarmament. 

There are hopes among the Kurds that this could mean the release of some high profile political prisoners, including the former chair of the main Kurdish political party Selahattin Demirtas. 

Support for jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan at the spring festival of Newroz, Mardin province in Türkiye in March./ Umit Bektas/Reuters
Support for jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan at the spring festival of Newroz, Mardin province in Türkiye in March./ Umit Bektas/Reuters

Support for jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan at the spring festival of Newroz, Mardin province in Türkiye in March./ Umit Bektas/Reuters

But this apparent outreach by the ruling AKP to the PKK, deemed a terrorist group in the U.S. and EU, has angered many in Turkish nationalist circles. Similarly the laying down of weapons without any clear concessions has also been opposed by some Kurds, who are suspicious of President Erdogan's true intentions.

Amid the ongoing crackdown against the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), they fear a wider power grab by the AKP government is under way ahead of early elections, set for 2027.

Peace Dividend

But Erdogan, who once claimed he would drink "hemlock poison" to solve the decades old dispute with the Kurds points to a wider peace dividend.

The hope is that with the armed struggle at an end, billions that have been diverted on military spending could instead be reinvested in Turkiye's troubled economy, while a regeneration of the impoverished Kurdish south east of the country could help to secure a lasting peace in one of the region's most bitter and enduring conflicts.

Source(s): Reuters
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