PKK fighters exit Turkiye
Shafaq News – Ankara
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) completed its withdrawal from Turkiye to northern Iraq on Sunday, calling it a “major step” in the ongoing peace process.
In a statement, the group said remaining fighters would pull out gradually “if Turkiye remains committed to the peace process.”
The move follows the PKK’s decision earlier this year to end its four-decade armed campaign and dissolve, after imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan ordered members to disarm. The group’s May congress in northern Iraq formalized the move, followed by a symbolic disarmament ceremony near al-Sulaymaniyah in July.
Full disarmament and political integration are expected by the end of 2025, potentially closing the conflict that has killed about 40,000 people since the 1980s.
Around 3,500 PKK members remain in northern Iraq, according to Turkish media.
The withdrawal comes ahead of a planned meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party on October 28.
Read more: PKK calls it quits: Peace on the horizon in Turkiye?
