No concrete follow-up yet to the PKK terrorist group’s pledge to dissolve itself, but the terror-free Türkiye initiative launched last year is expected to move forward this summer. The group will likely lay down arms within months, and officials highlighted on Tuesday the importance of the issue, especially as the region found itself engulfed by the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.
Parliamentary Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş emphasized this fact at a news conference in Ankara, stating that developments in the immediate region demonstrated how the efforts to achieve the goal of a terror-free Türkiye, building upon on it with spirit of national unity, brotherhood, “to build a Türkiye where every citizen feel free and equal under elevated democratic standards” was crucial.
For more than four decades, the PKK exploited the country’s Kurdish community, claiming to fight for their deprived rights and was branded as a “separatist group” for its goal of carving out a self-styled “Kurdistan” in Türkiye’s southeast.
Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), made a landmark call last year to the group’s jailed ringleader Abdullah Öcalan and urged him to order the PKK to lay down arms. Bahçeli’s call evolved into a terror-free initiative supported by the government and the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which served as an “intermediary” for Öcalan. Öcalan finally made the call to the PKK last February. The terrorist group responded months later and announced it would take steps for dissolution in another historic declaration in May.
Kurtulmuş said Parliament would soon start working on the formation of a joint committee involving political parties “to ensure national unity” during the initiative, “to conclude the process flawlessly, to ensure this country will not suffer any longer and differences between people will not cause separation.”
He said Parliament’s most important task now was to transparently conduct this process and be open to everyone’s contribution. Kurtulmuş pledged full commitment to the work of the committee. “I also hope that all countries in our region will resolve their problems through dialogue and aggression by Israel will end,” he said.
The terror-free Türkiye initiative was first hinted at by officials, including Bahçeli himself and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, months before the initiative took its present form. Erdoğan and Bahçeli had repeatedly highlighted ensuring Türkiye’s unity and establishment of “a home front” as they cited that Israel sought to expand its conflict with Palestinians to the wider region and eventually to Türkiye.
Addressing a parliamentary group meeting of his party on Tuesday, DEM Party co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan said Türkiye should “learn” from the Iran-Israel conflict and ensure that the quiet progress of the current process would continue “strongly.”
“Parliament should immediately establish a Democratic Society and Peace Committee and undertake a historic responsibility,” he said.
Bakırhan noted that the ongoing conflict can change the fate of the region.
“The Middle East is not the Middle East of the last century. It is changing. Regimes are collapsing. Türkiye cannot venture into the unknown while it is being surrounded by a ring of fire. The best way is ensuring peace among the people of Türkiye,” he stated.
Bakırhan also noted that they would apply soon for a visit to Öcalan to “reinforce the work for terror-free Türkiye.” He said Türkiye cannot afford wasting more time “while the Middle East is on fire.”
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