Kurdish separatist fighters in Iraq begin laying down weapons as part of
peace process with Turkey
[July 11, 2025]
By STELLA MARTANY and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Fighters with a Kurdish separatist militant
group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey began laying
down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony on Friday in northern Iraq,
the first concrete step toward a promised disarmament as part of a peace
process.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, announced in May that it would
disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities.
The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned
on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to
convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.
Öcalan renewed his call in a video message broadcast Wednesday, saying,
“I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons.”
In Turkey, Devlet Bahceli, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist
ally who initiated the peace process, welcomed the development.
“Starting today, members of the separatist terrorist organization have
begun surrendering their weapons in groups, marking historic
developments that signal the end of a dark era,” Bahceli said in a
written statement. “These are exceptionally important days for both
Turkey and our region.”
Bahceli, who has traditionally maintained a hard-line stance against the
PKK, had surprised everyone in October, when he suggested in parliament
that Öcalan could be granted parole, if he renounced violence and
disbanded the PKK.
The PKK issued a statement from the fighters laying down their weapons,
who called themselves the "Peace and Democratic Society Group,” saying
that they had disarmed “as a gesture of goodwill and a commitment to the
practical success” of the peace process.
“We will henceforth continue our struggle for freedom, democracy, and
socialism through democratic politics and legal means,” the statement
said.
The ceremony took place in the mountains outside the city of
Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region. The
state-run Iraqi News Agency reported that “the process will take place
in stages, with a group of party members initially laying down their
weapons symbolically." The disarmament process is expected to be
completed by September, the agency reported.
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Forces of the regional Kurdish administration secure the area of the
Jasana Cave ahead of a symbolic disarmament ceremony by the
separatist PKK group as part of the peace process with Turkey, in
Sulaymaniyah governorate, Iraq, Friday, July 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi
Mizban
The PKK has long maintained bases in the mountains of northern Iraq.
Turkish forces have launched offensives and airstrikes against the
PKK in Iraq and have set up bases in the area. Scores of villages
have emptied as a result.
Last year, Iraq's government announced an official ban on the
separatist group, which has long been prohibited in Turkey.
Journalists weren't allowed at the site of Friday's ceremony.
An Iraqi Kurdish political official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly, said that
about 30 fighters took part in the ceremony, which took place in the
presence of a representative of the Turkish intelligence service and
representatives of the Kurdish regional government, Iraq's Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan party and the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy
Party, a pro-Kurdish party in Turkey.
PKK officials previously said that in order to continue the
disarmament process, they want to see Turkey take steps to end “the
regime of isolation” imposed on Öcalan in prison and to allow
integration of former militants into the political system.
___
Qassim Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad. Abby Sewell in Beirut, and
Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
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