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14-07-2025
ISTANBUL: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called for full support of the disarmament of Kurdish militants that began with a handover of the first batch of weapons by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) forces, a step he said opened a new page for the country.
Thirty PKK militants burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.
“As of yesterday, the scourge of terrorism has entered the process of ending. Today is a new day; a new page has opened in history. Today, the doors of a great, powerful Turkey have been flung wide open,” Erdogan told members of his AK Party in Ankara.
He said the recent steps have united the nation, and now the parliament will play a critical role in setting up a legal framework for completing the disarmament process.
“I hope that our parliament will support this process with the broadest possible participation,” Erdogan said.
Ankara has taken steps toward forming a parliamentary commission that will oversee the disarmament and PKK’s transition into democratic politics.
The PKK, locked in conflict with the Turkish state and outlawed since 1984, decided in May to disband, disarm and end its separatist struggle after a public call to do so from its long-imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.
After a series of failed peace efforts, the new initiative could pave the way for Ankara to end an insurgency that has killed over 40,000 people, burdened the economy and wrought deep social and political divisions in Turkey and the wider region.
However, thirty Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.
Footage from the ceremony showed the fighters, half of them women, queuing to place AK-47 assault rifles, bandoliers and other guns into a large grey cauldron. Flames later engulfed the black gun shafts pointed to the sky, as Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish officials watched nearby.
The PKK, locked in conflict with the Turkish state and outlawed since 1984, decided in May to disband, disarm and end its separatist struggle after a public call to do so from its long-imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.
After a series of failed peace efforts, the new initiative could pave the way for Ankara to end an insurgency that has killed over 40,000 people, burdened the economy and wrought deep social and political divisions in Turkey and the wider region.
President Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped the PKK’s dissolution would bolster Turkish security and regional stability. “May God grant us success in achieving our goals on this path we walk for the security of our country, the peace of our nation, and the establishment of lasting peace in our region,” he said on social media.
Friday’s ceremony was held at the entrance of the Jasana cave in the town of Dukan, 60 km (37 miles) northwest of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan region of Iraq’s north.
The fighters, in beige military fatigues, were flanked by four commanders including senior PKK figure Bese Hozat, who read a statement in Turkish declaring the group’s decision to disarm.
“We voluntarily destroy our weapons, in your presence, as a step of goodwill and determination,” she said, before another commander read the same statement in Kurdish.
Helicopters hovered overhead, with dozens of Iraqi Kurdish security forces surrounding the mountainous area, a witness said. (Int’l News Desk)
