Militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are expected to formally lay down their weapons in early July at a ceremony in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, according to a report by the Kurdish news outlet Rudaw on Monday. The move comes just weeks after the PKK announced an end to its four-decade-long armed campaign, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives.
The disarmament ceremony, scheduled to take place between July 3 and 10, is seen as a significant “trust-building step” and “goodwill gesture” aimed at advancing a reconciliation process with Turkey, Rudaw cited two sources in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as saying. A group of 20 to 30 PKK fighters is expected to participate in the initial disarmament.
The development has raised cautious optimism among Turkey’s Kurdish population, who hope this could mark the beginning of a new chapter of political openness and dialogue. Kurds constitute roughly 20 percent of Turkey’s 85 million people.
Most PKK militants have been based in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq, where the group has operated for years despite regular Turkish military operations and the presence of Turkish bases in the area.
The planned ceremony follows a February appeal by PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, who is serving a life sentence on İmralı Island since 1999. Öcalan is expected to issue a new message in the coming days that will formally signal the beginning of the disarmament process.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has confirmed that he plans to meet with a delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which has historically acted as a channel between Öcalan and the Turkish government during past peace efforts.
Contrary to some reports, the PKK militants will not be settled in Iraqi Kurdish cities after the ceremony. Instead, they will return—unarmed—to their bases, one of the sources told Rudaw. “It is out of the question for them to go to any city,” the source emphasized.
While the Turkish government has yet to provide a detailed roadmap for the dissolution of the PKK’s armed wing, officials have stated that Ankara will closely monitor the process to ensure that all steps are properly implemented.
If realized, this initiative could become the most significant development in Turkey’s Kurdish issue since the collapse of the last peace process in 2015.
