The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced this Sunday, October 26, that it will withdraw “all its forces” from Turkey to northern Iraq, a measure considered historic within the scope of the ongoing peace process with Ankara.
“We are proceeding with the withdrawal of all our forces in Turkey”, with 25 fighters, men and women, already in northern Iraq, declared the PKK in a statement published by the Firat news agency.
All Turkish media outlets are reporting this announcement, citing sources in northern Iraq, where the guerrillas have their bases.
Turkey has already welcomed the decision by Kurdish PKK militants to withdraw from Turkish territory to northern Iraq, considering it a “concrete result” of efforts to end a four-decade conflict.
“With today’s developments, the PKK’s decision to withdraw from Turkey and the announcement of new steps towards a disarmament process constitute concrete results of the progress achieved,” said Ömer Çelik, spokesman for the AKP, the party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Considered terrorists by Turkey, the United States and the European Union (EU), the PKK, the Kurdish guerrilla group in Turkey, announced in December 2024 its dissolution and the end of the “armed struggle” it began against the Turkish State 40 years ago and which caused around 45,000 deaths, thus responding to the call of its founder and leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who is detained.
At a press conference held in northern Iraq, alongside two large photographs of Abdullah Ocalan, PKK leaders highlighted the “significant steps of historic importance” they took to achieve a “peaceful and democratic society”, which is now joined by Turkey’s declaration of withdrawal.
“We are carrying out the withdrawal of all our forces in Turkey, which represent a risk of conflict within Turkish borders and are vulnerable to possible provocations”, says the statement by the Kurdish armed group, read to the media by the member of its Executive Council Sabri Ok and published by the Firat agency.