Members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) will begin laying down their weapons on Friday in a ceremony held in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, two months after Kurdish fighters declared an end to four decades of armed conflict against the Turkish state.
The disarmament ceremony marks a turning point in the PKK's transition from armed insurgency to democratic politics, part of broader efforts to end one of the region's longest-running conflicts, which has left more than 40,000 dead since 1984.
The PKK, founded by Abdullah Öcalan in the late 1970s, announced on May 12 its dissolution and disarmament, ending a conflict that had long strained relations between the Turkish authorities and the Kurdish minority and neighboring countries.
This came in response to a call made by Öcalan on February 27 from his prison on Imrali Island off Istanbul. On March 1, the PKK, which Ankara and its Western allies classify as a "terrorist" organization, declared a ceasefire.
The disarmament ceremony is expected to take place Friday morning at an unspecified location near the city of Sulaymaniyah in northeastern Iraq's Kurdistan Region.
Most of the party's fighters have sought refuge in mountainous areas of northern Iraq over the past decade, where Turkey has established military bases to confront them for 25 years and has regularly launched ground and air operations against them.
While details of the ceremony remain limited, a PKK official told AFP in early July that around 30 fighters would destroy their weapons and then return to the mountains.
"As a show of goodwill, a number of PKK fighters who participated in the fighting against Turkish forces in recent years will break or burn their weapons in a special ceremony in the coming days," the official, who requested anonymity, explained.
This step represents a key milestone in the indirect negotiations that have been ongoing since October between Öcalan and Ankara under the auspices of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Turkey's third-largest political faction, has played a key role in mediating between Ankara and Öcalan, who has been serving a life sentence since 1999.
A number of HDP deputies, who arrived in Sulaymaniyah on Thursday, are expected to attend Friday's ceremony, as well as several journalists.
In a video dated June 19 but broadcast Wednesday, Öcalan said, "As part of fulfilling the promises we made, a disarmament mechanism should be established that will contribute to progress in the process, the voluntary end of the armed struggle, and the transition to a legal and democratic political phase."
The 76-year-old Kurdish leader added, "Regarding the disarmament, appropriate methods will be determined and swift practical steps will be taken."
For his part, Erdoğan told reporters on Saturday on his way back from an economic summit in Azerbaijan that peace efforts with the Kurds "will accelerate slightly when the terrorist organization begins to implement its decision to lay down its arms."
In another statement to members of his ruling party on Wednesday, he said, "We are entering a new phase in which we will receive positive news in the coming days." He added, "We hope that this process will conclude successfully as soon as possible, without any incidents or sabotage attempts."
An Iraqi security source told AFP that the disarmament process "is expected to conclude in 2026, with the formation of a new political party in Turkey."
Kurds in Turkey hope that the party's decision will pave the way for a political settlement with Ankara, opening the door to renewed openness toward this minority, which constitutes approximately 20% of the country's 85 million population.
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