File image.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on July 11 began the disarmament process agreed upon with Turkey earlier in the year.
The process, which is expected to unfold throughout the summer, began with a small ceremony held in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous region of Kurdish.
30 PKK fighters, 15 women and 15 men, gathered near the province of Sulaimaniyah, burning their weapons instead of surrendering them in a symbolic ceremony attended by more than a hundred observers from Turkey, including officials from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy and Equality Party as well as journalists.
“We are destroying our weapons of our own free will,” Bese Hozat, a senior PKK official, was quoted as saying during the ceremony, ahead of the weaponry being burned.
The official went on to describe the ceremony as “a goodwill and committed step toward the practical success of the peace process.”
“We hope that this step we have taken will bring peace and freedom . . . to all our people, the peoples of Turkey and the Middle East, and all of humanity,” he added.
The PKK is designated as a “terrorist” organization by Turkey and its Western allies, including the United States. The conflict with the group has been ongoing for over 46 years. It is estimated to have claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people, so far.
In a historic announcement in May, the PKK said that it was ending the armed struggle against Turkey after its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, ordered the group to disarm and dissolve as part of peace talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan welcomed the group’s first step towards disarmament, declaring it as “totally ripping off and throwing away the bloody shackles that were put on our country’s legs”. Erdogan also said the move would benefit the entire region.
In a video aired earlier this week but recorded in June by the PKK-linked Firat News Agency, Ocalan described the moment as “a voluntary transition from the phase of armed conflict to the phase of democratic politics and law”, calling it a “historic gain”.
It is unclear yet how the disarmament process will reflect on Syria, where the PKK-linked Syrian Democratic Forces, which controls most of the northeastern part of the country, is yet to integrate into the forces of the new government as agreed on in a separate breakthrough agreement with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa last March.
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