PKK disarmament could begin in days, Turkey confirms

Disarming the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) could begin in days, the spokesman of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party has said, in some of the clearest remarks yet from Ankara on the process of disbanding the militant group.

“I don't want to give a definite timeline at this stage. Now we've reached a stage where it could happen in a matter of days,” AK Party spokesman Omer Celik told reporters, according to Reuters.

The coming days would be “extremely important for a Turkey free of terrorism”, Mr Celik added.

PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose group is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the US, called on PKK members in February to lay down their arms and for the group to be dissolved. His call came after a months-long process initiated by an ally of Mr Erdogan, the ultranationalist politician Devlet Bahceli, to offer greater freedom for Ocalan in exchange for the PKK’s dissolution.

The PKK agreed to heed Ocalan’s call and disband in May. Yet the process of laying down weapons and deciding the fate of its fighters is complex.

A source close to the PKK previously confirmed that “a handful of fighters” will lay down their arms in a ceremony in Sulaimaniyah province in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region in the coming days. The weapons would be handed over to several organisations, the source added, without specifying which bodies exactly would take the arms or what the fighters’ fate would be. It remains unclear if they will be allowed to return to their mountain strongholds, or if they will find alternative living arrangements.

Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin travelled to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Tuesday to discuss the process of dismantling the PKK, according to a statement from Ankara’s intelligence services seen by The National. Mr Kalin met senior politicians and leaders including the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Masoud Barzani, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister Masrour ​​Barzani and his deputy Qubad Talabani, as well as interior ministry and security officials.

One of the most important issues on the table during the talks was the “terror-free Turkey” process,” the Turkish statement said, referring to the process of dissolving the PKK using a term used by Turkish government officials. Steps to “cleanse the entire region of terrorism”, were discussed, the statement added.

Many of the PKK’s team have long lived in the remote Qandil mountains in the semi-autonomous region of Iraq, where they have a sometimes uneasy relationship with Kurdistan Region's security officials. Some Kurdish parties enjoy a good relationship with Turkey, while others are more sympathetic to the PKK and its decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

The source close to the PKK said that the coming disarming was a “symbolic move” designed to show that the group is moving away from armed struggle, and to push for faster action in Turkey to form legislation that would provide an amnesty for former fighters.

Kurdish politicians in Turkey, who distinguish themselves from the PKK, are pushing for Ankara to move faster in what they describe as a democratisation process aimed at peace. The Turkish government’s framing of a “terror-free Turkey” follows more than four decades of conflict with the Kurdish militant group that has killed more than 40,000 people on both sides.

On Tuesday Tuncer Bakirhan, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) in Turkey, told politicians in Ankara that parliament needed to work more quickly to establish a commission to amend elements of the law. That would allow the PKK dissolution process to proceed by enshrining it in law and providing alternative avenues for former militants, DEM Party believes. Kurdish politicians also want better prison conditions for Ocalan, who has been incarcerated in an island jail in the Sea of Marmara, south of Istanbul, since 1999.

“The successful completion of the disarmament process will enable reconciliation within the framework of the law of brotherhood,” Mr Bakirhan said. “It will increase people's confidence in this process.”