Dozens of members of the PKK terrorist group took part on Friday in a long-awaited weapons handover ceremony described by the armed group itself as ‘historic’, marking the first step towards the dissolution of the organisation two days after its leader, Abdullah Öcalan, reiterated in a video message from prison his call for the group’s dissolution saying that it “has become obsolete” and that the armed struggle no longer makes sense.
According to Turkish media reports, the ceremony held today on the outskirts of Sulaymaniyah, a town in the Iraqi Kurdistan region where the PKK has some political backing, involved some 30 members of the armed organisation who staged a scene where, one by one, they paraded towards a cauldron with a burning fire into which they slowly threw their weapons and belts: these were mostly light weapons such as AK-47 rifles, but a machine gun and a grenade launcher were also included in the symbolic act. As the ceremony took place, dozens of peshmerga – the regional government’s security forces – surrounded the area, which was also flown over by helicopters.
The event took place next to the Jasana cave in the town of Dokan (Dukan), some 60 kilometres north of Sulaymaniyah and about 120 kilometres southeast of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq. The event, contrary to what some sources had reported, was eventually attended by numerous journalists as well as political figures from both Turkey and Iraq, including prominent members of the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (MİT), the KRG, the pro-Kurdish DEM Party of Turkey and several civilian organisations.
As Öcalan called for in his latest message, the PKK is expected to complete its disarmament “swiftly” and the process of handing over weapons is expected to be completed by the end of September. The terrorist organisation itself described today’s event as “historic” in a statement read out at the ceremony, in which it stressed that “in order to ensure the success of the ‘peace and democratic society’ process (referring to its disarmament and dissolution process announced in May)… we voluntarily destroy our weapons as a gesture of goodwill and determination“. “We wish that this step will bring peace and freedom,” the armed group said at the event.
Ankara described today’s symbolic act in northern Iraq as an “irreversible turning point” towards peace, a senior Turkish official was quoted as saying: “We consider this event (the PKK’s surrender of weapons) as an irreversible turning point, an opportunity to protect innocent lives and build a future free of terror. Turkey remains committed to supporting all efforts that prioritise disarmament, stability and lasting reconciliation in the region,” the source stressed.
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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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