Turkiye drops leaflets in Duhok urging PKK fighters to surrender

Shafaq News/ On Tuesday, Turkish fighter jets dropped leaflets over mountainous areas in Iraq’s northern Duhok province, calling on Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters to surrender their arms and heed the call of their jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Residents of villages near Mount Matin and Mount Gara in al-Amadiyah district told Shafaq News that the Turkish military aircraft dropped paper leaflets over areas believed to be PKK strongholds, as well as nearby villages.

The leaflets, written in both Turkish and Kurdish, urged PKK members to “respond to Öcalan’s appeal,” who has been imprisoned in Turkiye since 1999. The message called on militants to abandon armed struggle and turn themselves in to Turkish authorities, promising leniency for those who comply.

The aerial campaign follows a rare and widely publicized message from Öcalan on February 27, 2025, in which he urged the PKK to lay down arms and disband. The message, described by Öcalan as a “historic responsibility,” was read aloud in Istanbul by members of the pro-Kurdish Equality and Democracy for Peoples Party (DEM) after visiting him on İmralı Island.

In the message, Öcalan called for a shift from armed struggle to political engagement, stating that the time had come to resolve the Kurdish issue through democratic means.

The statement drew international attention, with the White House welcoming it as a “major development” and expressing hope that it would support stability in the region—particularly in light of tensions between Turkiye and US-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.