The declaration of dissolution by the terrorist group PKK is the dawn of a new era both for Türkiye and the wider region. Monday’s announcement can be interpreted as a decisive step in the terror-free Türkiye initiative that aimed to put an end to more than four decades of violence that claimed thousands of lives across Türkiye, as well as neighboring Syria and Iraq.
If the PKK proceeds with the implementation of its decision, it will hand over weapons and cease its attacks across three countries. The dissolution follows a February call by Abdullah Öcalan on Feb. 27, a historic stage of the terror-free Türkiye initiative. If all goes well, Türkiye will benefit both in terms of security and economy.
Türkiye has already restored security in the southeastern and eastern parts of Türkiye, where the PKK terrorized the local population for years, forcing authorities to cut off access, especially to pastures and agricultural lands. The PKK’s threats and attacks targeting workers and companies involved in infrastructure construction also stunted growth in the region. An end to the PKK’s activities will also save Türkiye billions of Turkish liras spent on counterterrorism and rebuilding. A report by the Turkish Directorate of General Security puts the cost of counterterrorism at more than TL 3 trillion between 1984 and 2019.
The cessation of PKK activities may give Türkiye more room to maneuver as a regional peacemaker. The group has been a main threat to the country’s diplomatic efforts for wider regional security, and also affected Ankara’s relations with European countries, which harbored pro-PKK groups for a long time.
History of PKK
The PKK was founded by Öcalan in 1978, purportedly as a group to blend what it called to advance a cause for Kurdish people’s rights with Marxist and Leninist ideas. Six years later, it carried out its first attack within Türkiye, in the Eruh district of the province of Siirt. A Turkish army corporal was the group’s first victim. It was followed by more attacks focusing on southeastern and eastern provinces. Attacks initially targeted security forces and later expanded to civilian targets, from villagers refusing to supply them, to teachers and civil servants in the southeastern provinces. Over the years, the group expanded its campaign of terrorism to western provinces, from the capital Ankara to Istanbul. More than 40,000 people were killed in the violent campaign. Its last major attack was in October 2024 when two terrorists linked to the group’s Syrian wing, the YPG, stormed the headquarters of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ or TAI) and killed five people.
As its attacks aggravated, it was designated a terrorist group by Türkiye, as well as the United States, the European Union and some allies of Türkiye.
The group operated in Syria until 1998, though most of its members roamed mountainous territories in southeastern Türkiye to avoid detection. Its main base was Syria in the 1990s. When Öcalan was cornered there, the group’s leadership moved operations to northern Iraq. Öcalan fled Syria in 1998 and traveled to several countries before his capture by Turkish special forces in Kenya. A court sentenced him to death in 1999, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in October 2002 after Türkiye abolished the death penalty.
Öcalan’s capture led to a decline in the group, and a barrage of military operations further drove them to Iraq. In recent years, the number of its members operating within Türkiye is believed to have been around the dozens.
‘Reconciliation’
In 2012, Türkiye launched an ambitious bid to end PKK terrorism in a non-military way. Reconciliation process, or the democratic opening, as it was alternately called, saw talks with figures close to the group and efforts to reinstate rights of the Kurdish community, primarily education in Kurdish, as Türkiye sought to address the issues exploited by the PKK to advance its agenda. In 2015, the process effectively collapsed when the PKK resumed attacks after a so-called truce. What followed was a spate of attacks and a bloody campaign of violence concentrated in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, where the group’s members set up barricades on the streets.
Terror-free Türkiye
In October 2024, Türkiye witnessed another move to end PKK terrorism. Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is a government ally, stunned the country when he unexpectedly suggested that Öcalan should be allowed to speak at Parliament and call for the PKK to dissolve and lay down arms. Days earlier, Bahçeli was photographed shaking hands with members of DEM linked to the PKK, surprising many due to Bahçeli’s past harsh criticism of DEM and its predecessors. His reasoning, as Bahçeli announced later, was actually simple: to end an issue plaguing Türkiye for decades at a time of rising tensions in the region, especially due to Israel’s expansionist policies. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) backed Bahçeli, and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan termed this new bid as the terror-free Türkiye initiative.
Later, a DEM delegation shuttled between Imralı island, where Öcalan was incarcerated, and political parties, relaying the terrorist leader’s messages. Finally, on Feb. 27, 2025, Öcalan released a message read at a news conference in Istanbul by DEM members, urging the PKK to dissolve itself and lay down arms.
PKK in Iraq, Syria
The terrorist group was forced to reduce its activities in Türkiye in recent years due to constant military operations, but terrorism shifted to Iraq and Syria. In Iraq, the PKK held out hideouts in Qandil, a mountain in a region controlled by Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Türkiye has been operating military outposts there for years and stepped up its counterterrorism campaign with a string of operations called Claw-Lock. Elsewhere, the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) succeeded in eliminating top figures of the group in the country, particularly through precision drone strikes.
Türkiye’s efforts to wipe out the PKK presence in Iraq bore fruit last year and in 2025 after a series of high-profile visits from Baghdad to Ankara and vice versa. Last year, Iraq took a decisive step in labeling the PKK a banned organization.
In Syria, the group thrived through its wing there, the U.S.-backed YPG. Amid lawlessness brought upon by years of civil war, the YPG carved out a so-called autonomy in Syria’s northeast, immediately across the Turkish border. Türkiye helped the Syrian opposition drive out the YPG from towns it occupied in the north through major cross-border offensives. Yet, the YPG gained strength thanks to support from Türkiye’s ally, the United States, under the pretext of a joint fight against the terrorist group Daesh in Syria. When the Assad regime collapsed and the war ended, the YPG faced an uncertain future and finally consented to a deal with the new administration to integrate with the security forces of Syria. Yet, Damascus was angered over a recent “convention” in northern Syria spearheaded by the YPG that concluded with a call for “decentralization” in a bid to cling to its self-styled autonomy. Türkiye repeatedly warned the YPG to join the PKK in the terror-free Türkiye initiative and lay down arms in order not to be subject to counterterrorism operations.