PKK: All fighters withdrawn from Turkiye

Shafaq News- Ankara

The dissolved Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said on Thursday it had pulled all its remaining fighters out of Turkiye and abandoned positions in Iraq's Metina area, warning that further Turkish delays would deepen doubts about the two-year peace process.

The last forces inside Turkiye left several days ago, the group's executive leadership said in a statement. On the same day, fighters vacated four combat tunnels and positions in Metina, west of the Zap, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, even though the area lies far from the border and poses no threat to Turkiye. With that, all the group's armed forces inside Turkiye and in areas near its border have been withdrawn, it said.

The group said the move was meant to leave the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) no excuse for what it called its inadequate handling of the process. “Turkiye can no longer claim it faces an armed threat.”

Pressure over Ocalan

The PKK called on Ankara to act on the freedom of its jailed founder, Abdullah Ocalan. Without such steps, it said, the Turkish state would be continuing "its century-old policy of denial and annihilation." How the government treats Ocalan, including allowing him to live and work freely, is the test of its commitment, the group said, warning that further delay would confirm the doubts of Kurds and of the movement and affect its positions.

The PKK said Ankara had taken no meaningful steps after the legal framework for the process advanced in parliament, adding that promised meetings between Ocalan, journalists and various parties never took place, and apart from visits by a delegation of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, his isolation on Imrali island has continued.

The group also criticized the law itself, saying it ignored the framework Ocalan had set out and the PKK's own proposals, and that leaving out Ocalan and the movement's leadership made it hard to implement from the start. Ocalan nonetheless described it as the first of a thousand steps, the statement said.

From Ceasefire To Disarmament

The peace process began in October 2024, when Ocalan responded to an initiative by Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party and an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The PKK declared a ceasefire in February 2025 and, at a congress in May, announced the end of its armed struggle and its activities under the PKK name. The conflict has killed 40,000-50,000 people over more than four decades.

The PKK's presence in Iraq remains a point of contention between Baghdad and Ankara. Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi listed an agreement on the withdrawal of Turkish forces and PKK members among the pillars of Iraq's new "sovereignty phase."

Read more: The Kurdish rebellion dissolves: Turkiye’s century-old equation evolves