President Tayyip Erdogan declared on Saturday that an historic turning point had been reached in Türkiye’s four-decade conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after 30 fighters burned their weapons in northern Iraq.
Thirty PKK fighters torched rifles and explosives at the mouth of a cave in Iraq’s Qandil Mountains on Friday, the first formal surrender of arms since the insurgency began in 1984.
“As of yesterday, the scourge of terrorism has entered the process of ending,” President Erdogan told party supporters in Istanbul. “Today is a new day; a new page has opened in history.”
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Türkiye, the European Union and the U.S., has waged an on-off guerrilla campaign that Ankara says has cost more than 40,000 lives. Previous ceasefire efforts collapsed in 2015, and the group’s top leadership remains outside Türkiye’s jurisdiction in the rugged Iraq–Iran border region.
Friday’s symbolic disarmament involves only a fraction of the estimated 5,000 to 10,000 PKK combatants still active across Iraq, Syria and south-east Türkiye, analysts note. No timetable has been announced for further hand-overs or for political talks.
Turkish media reported that government officials had verified the fighters identities before the ceremony, but the interior ministry did not immediately comment on whether amnesties would be offered.
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Demonstrators carrying Iranian flags and placards supporting the hijab gathered outside the Azerbaijani Embassy in London.
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