site.btaKurdistan Workers' Party Disbands: What’s Next?

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), declared by Turkiye for a terrorist organization, announced Monday that it had decided to dissolve itself during its 12th congress held on May 5-7.

A statement from the congress, made public by Turkish media, said the PKK was disbanding and ending its armed struggle against the Turkish authorities. It also calls for a reformatting of Turkish-Kurdish relations.

The decision of the PKK, which has been expected for a long time, has become the topic of the day in Turkiye.

“A very important threshold has been crossed on the road to a terror-free Turkiye,’ Efkan Ala, deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), told state broadcaster TRT Haber.

“It is the duty of all of us to support the process of a terror-free Turkiye,’ said the other AKP deputy chairman Hayati Yazici.

What follows from the PKK's decision? How will it be implemented in practice? What will be the roadmap of the process?

These and similar questions preoccupy the country's public.

It is clear from the statements made so far by President Erdogan and his AKP that the process will go step by step. One positive step can be followed by another positive step, the government said.

According to the Haberler portal, the process will be implemented in two stages.

In the first stage, Ankara expects the dissolution of the PKK terrorist organization to affect all its elements - the fighters in the mountains, the bases, the weapons, the technical means, the safehouses. This means that the fighters should come down from the mountains and surrender. Another major issue on the agenda is the unconditional surrender of weapons. It remains to be clarified under what conditions this will happen.

In the second stage, the legal provisions will be on the agenda. It is planned that Parliament will pass a legal regulation concerning members of the terrorist organization who are in the mountains. Part of it will relate specifically to fighters who have been involved in terrorist acts, for which penalties are envisaged.

They will be treated separately from those who have not been involved in terrorist operations against Turkiye, for whom an amnesty may be declared, Haberler writes.

Another formula is to be applied to the responsible leaders of the terrorist PKK who are responsible for the tens of thousands of victims.

The leadership of the pro-Kurdish party represented in parliament (DEM) said it expects steps to be taken to improve the conditions of the terrorist organization's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence for terrorism and treason in an isolated prison on the island of Imral in the Sea of Marmara.