Eurasia Press & News
Members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group have begun to lay down arms at a ceremony in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, marking an end to its armed struggle against Turkey in one of the world’s longest-running insurgencies.
The Friday ceremony was held in the morning at the Jasana Cave, located in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. The area, west of the northeastern city of Sulaymaniyah, has served as a shelter for most PKK fighters over the past decade.
A source from the PKK stated that approximately 30 fighters laid down weapons, including AK-47s, PKM machine guns, and sniper rifles before retreating to the mountains.
“As a gesture of goodwill, a number of PKK fighters, who took part in fighting Turkish forces in recent years, will destroy or burn their weapons in a ceremony,” a PKK commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, said earlier this month.
However, tensions escalated prior to the ceremony as two drones were shot down overnight in proximity to Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga bases, one located in Sulaymaniyah and the other to the west in Kirkuk.
The initiation of the PKK’s disarmament represents a crucial milestone in the prolonged indirect negotiations between the militant group’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan and the Ankara government, which commenced last October with the endorsement of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and have been supported by Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party.
The disarmament ceremony signifies a pivotal moment in the PKK shift from armed rebellion to democratic engagement, as part of a wider initiative to conclude one of the region’s most enduring conflicts.
“I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons. And I urge you to put this principle into practice,” Ocalan said in a video message released on Wednesday, pledging that the disarmament process would be “implemented swiftly.”
Erdogan has said peace efforts with the Kurds would accelerate following the PKK’s decision to disarm.
“The process will gain a little more speed when the terrorist organization starts to implement its decision to lay down arms,” he said at the weekend.
“We hope this auspicious process will end successfully as soon as possible, without mishaps or sabotage attempts,” the Turkish leader added.
On May 12, the PKK, founded in the late 1970s by Ocalan, adopted a decision to disarm and disband.
The historic decision came after Ocalan called on his Kurdish group to lay down arms and dissolve in order to end four decades of conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
In a message from his prison on an island off Istanbul, Ocalan said that the PKK should hold a congress and decide to disband. Now 75, Ocalan has been held in solitary confinement since 1999 on Imrali prison island.
The PKK decision was also welcomed by top officials in Syria and Iraq, as well as the European Union and the United Nations.
