After 40 years of rebellion and 40,000 deaths, Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters are set to lay down arms on Friday, to mark the movement’s phased disarmament process.
Due to sensitivities over the abandonment of the insurgency, the fighters will destroy rather than surrender their weapons. Once this process is complete Turkey, the United States and the European Union may lift the designation of the PKK as a “terrorist” group.
The ceremony, organised by the Turkish Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, is to be held in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah rather than in Turkey due to security concerns. Nevertheless, it is expected to draw politicians, intellectuals, public figures and representatives of Turkish political parties and civil society organisations, according to Iraq-based Kurdish media broadcaster Rudaw.
On Wednesday, the PKK aired a message from its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan who called the voluntary shift from armed conflict to democratic politics a “historic gain”. He said the establishment of a Turkish parliamentary committee to oversee the peace process would be “crucial [and] details of the process should be “determined and implemented swiftly”.
While in solitary confinement since 1999 on an island in the Sea of Marmara, Ocalan has been the prime mover of the pacification process. In February, Ocalan declared an end to the war and in May the PKK announced its dissolution.
In a speech on Wednesday to legislators from his ruling Justice and Development party, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “Once the wall of terror is torn down, God willing, everything will change. More pain and tears will be prevented. The winners of this [process] will be the whole of Turkey – Turks, Kurds and Arabs. Then it will [expand to] our entire region.”
He added: “We hope that this auspicious process will conclude successfully as soon as possible, without any road accidents, and without it being sabotaged by dark and corrupt circles.”
The end of the PKK revolt is a major turning point for both Turks and Kurds. The founder in 1923 of the modern Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, promoted a unified Turkish identity and nation by assimilating Arabs, Circassians and Kurds, the largest of the minorities, accounting for 15-20 per cent of the population. Turkey banned the Kurdish language, culture and history, and massacred, oppressed and exiled Kurdish people.
The PKK was established in 1978 to fight for independence while peaceful Kurdish movements and political parties pressed for recognition and civil rights. Battered by Turkey’s army, PKK guerrillas sought refuge in Iraq’s Qandil mountains where they were bombed by Ankara’s air force.
In 2005, the PKK began negotiations with Mr Erdogan on Kurdish rights in a pluralistic democratic system. This marked an end to the Ataturk vision of Turkification and of PKK military action to achieve Kurdish demands.
