Unfurling a giant Turkish flag, a group of youth and lawmakers marched in Gabar, a mountain once a hotbed of PKK terrorism, for a Monday event on the occasion of Türkiye’s Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day. As balloons in the colors of the Turkish flag were flown in the parade, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, who joined the crowd, spoke to journalists about the terror-free Türkiye initiative.
“It is continuing as planned,” Kurtulmuş said, referring to last week’s historic declaration by the terrorist group to dissolve. “Now we are waiting for them to hand over their weapons. After the handover is completed, this matter will be in the domain of the Turkish Parliament. It will be discussed there and a legal framework will be prepared there. All political parties will contribute to moving the process forward,” he said.
Last Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan welcomed the PKK’s decision to disband, calling it an important step that will pave a new era for the country.
“The doors of the new era will open once weapons are laid down,” the president told a news conference following the Cabinet meeting in the capital, Ankara.
“We consider the decision taken to be important for strengthening our country’s security and the eternal brotherhood of our nation,” he said, noting that Ankara regards this statement as a decision that also covers all extensions of the organization in Iraq, Syria and Europe. He said that the intelligence agency and other relevant units would closely monitor the upcoming process with great care to prevent any setbacks and to ensure that promises are kept. He continued by saying that they would share more detailed statements with the public in the coming days.
Kurtulmuş then joined a delegation, including Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, for a ceremony at an oil exploration well named after Esma Çevik, a military officer who died while defusing an explosive planted by the PKK in 2019 in Şırnak, where Gabar mountain is located.
“These mountains will not be the place of fear, death, bullets and bombs any longer; they will echo with songs of brotherhood and unity,” Kurtulmuş said at the ceremony.
For decades, PKK members roamed mountainous areas of southeastern and eastern Türkiye, terrorizing villages opposing their presence and maintaining hideouts there. Turkish security forces lost a large number of personnel, from police officers to troops, while pursuing terrorists in Gabar and other mountains. Mountains have often been off-limits to civilians due to counterterrorism operations and heavy presence of terrorists, but they were reopened for tourism and agriculture in recent years as the PKK’s activities drastically diminished, thanks to constant counterterrorism operations. With the group’s decision to dissolve itself, all rural parts of southeastern and eastern Türkiye, previously temporarily closed due to terrorism threats, are expected to be fully open to the public.
“Those roads we walked, we drove to arrive here, were places where bombs went off a short time ago. This area is now hosting oil wells, students, employees of oil companies and we, the lawmakers,” Kurtulmuş told journalists. He remembered the sacrifices of security personnel, including Esma Çevik, whose counterterrorism efforts “helped construction of a 680-kilometer (422.5-mile) road in this region and securing the oil wells.”
“Now, no citizen of this country will go to the mountain or die fighting terrorism,” using a colloquial term for people joining the PKK. “We will establish unity and brotherhood together, we will share the wealth here,” he added.
Media outlets reported last week that PKK members will hand over their weapons within the next four months, and some 3,500 terrorists will leave their hideouts in Iraq’s north.
In coordination with Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Türkiye designated specific points there for the handover of weapons. The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) will coordinate the process with local authorities. Northern Iraq has been a hotbed of PKK activity and the group’s senior cadres are hiding in mountainous regions in KRG-administered areas. Officials say confirmation of the handover will be possible due to Türkiye’s knowledge of the inventory of the PKK’s arsenal. The terrorist group will also notify authorities about depots and shelters where they keep munitions and weapons. U.N. observers may also be present to monitor the process.
Currently, the PKK has around 3,500 members in Iraq, according to unconfirmed reports. About 100 among them are senior leaders of the group. Some 2,000 members of the PKK without an active arrest warrant are expected to return to Türkiye. They will be tried or questioned under existing counterterrorism laws. They will be subject to judicial control for two years, and Ankara is not considering new regulations exclusively for them, media reports said last week.
Leaders of the PKK will be sent into exile in other countries. Media reports say those will include Norway and South Africa, while others will be allowed to stay in northern Iraq. They won’t be allowed to cross into Syria. As for the PKK’s Syria wing, the YPG, the group will be integrated into the army of post-Assad Syria, and Türkiye will coordinate the integration with Damascus. The YPG leads the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which also includes members of some Arab tribes in the region. Turkish sources say those tribes would soon leave the SDF and thus, weaken the YPG’s network in Türkiye’s southern neighbor.
A recent report by the Sabah newspaper said Türkiye would launch a “democratization drive” after the PKK fully lays down arms, and the drive would include amendments of laws, including the practice of appointment of trustees to municipalities and other entities whose mayors were convicted of aiding the PKK.
Turkish authorities will also run round-the-clock surveillance on PKK members to monitor whether they abstain from acts of terrorism.
As for the fate of the terrorist group’s leader, Abdullah Öcalan, Türkiye does not consider releasing him after the dissolution, according to unconfirmed reports. Öcalan has been serving life without parole in Imralı, an island prison near Istanbul, since 1999 after his capture in Kenya.
Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who suggested the terror-free Türkiye initiative, had initially called on authorities to weigh the possibility of the right of hope for Öcalan if he calls the group to dissolve. The right of hope, even implemented, does not grant immediate release. Öcalan, for his part, did not propose any conditions for his historic call. Nevertheless, conditions of his incarceration may be eased. He already has a few fellow inmates in the well-guarded prison, but this number may be increased. Earlier media reports before his February call cited a possible house arrest for Öcalan, but this was not confirmed by authorities.