Turkey is living critical days in the process of disarming and disbanding the PKK terrorist group, which could put an end to one of the darkest periods in the country’s history, which has left more than 40,000 dead since the group took up arms in 1984 and which is increasingly close to its end after the historic appeal made at the end of February by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.
The Ankara presidential palace in the capital’s Beştepe district hosted yesterday a critical meeting in which Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan received a delegation from the pro-Kurdish DEM party, which the day before had returned from a new visit to İmralı, the prison island in the Sea of Marmara where the leader of the terrorist organisation, Abdullah Öcalan, has been serving a life sentence since 1999. The meeting, which lasted about an hour, was also attended by the head of the National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) İbrahim Kalın and the former interior minister and current deputy chairman of the AKP party, Efkan Âlâ.
According to sources quoted by the daily Hürriyet, during this meeting – which took place behind closed doors – the DEM party delegation consisting of deputies Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar informed Erdoğan about the steps to be taken with the parties involved in the PKK disarmament process and what actions they believe should be taken once the group hands over its weapons. The Turkish president for his part made a number of remarks and recommendations to Buldan and Sancar, the latter present in place of the recently deceased Sırrı Süreyya Önder.
Kalın, head of the Turkish intelligence services, was one of the key figures present at the meeting, and has been very active in recent days between Turkey and Iraq in coordinating the PKK disarmament process. After visiting Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, to inspect the border between the two countries, Kalın is in Baghdad today, and is the main official assigned by Turkey to monitor the entire process of handing over weapons by the terrorist organisation.
48 hours critical for the end of terrorism in Turkey
The Turkish press agrees that the most critical period for this historic process will be the 48 hours between Thursday 10 and Friday 11 July. In those days, Öcalan is expected to make another appeal confirming the progress towards the end of the armed struggle and the disbanding of the PKK; but above all, on Friday, a weapons handover ceremony is scheduled to take place in the city of Sulaymaniyah, in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq (KRG), although the exact location of the ceremony has not been revealed for security reasons.
Between 20 and 30 PKK members will take part in the ceremony, led by a senior leader of the armed group, whose identity is not yet known. However, the DEM party has announced that, contrary to initial plans, journalists will not be allowed to attend the handover ceremony in Sulaymaniyah for security reasons, according to Turkish press reports. Images of the weapons handover will be released publicly once the process is complete.
Those PKK members who lay down their arms will not return to PKK bases in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq, on the border with Turkey, nor will they continue to participate in PKK activities, although they will continue to live in Iraq, according to sources linked to the process.
In Ankara, they expect the PKK disarmament process to be completed by the end of this summer, but everything is currently pending a video message expected to be released by Öcalan before Friday, confirming the PKK’s dissolution, which the parties involved in the process see as a ‘symbolic complement’ to seal the final step towards the end of terrorism in Turkey. However, contrary to the expectations expressed by the DEM party, the disarmament of the PKK will not mean an amnesty for the PKK prisoners already serving sentences in Turkish jails, including Öcalan himself.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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