The Kurdish militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) yesterday said it was withdrawing all its forces from Turkey to northern Iraq, urging Ankara to take legal steps to protect the peace process, as it held a ceremony in northern Iraq.
“We are implementing the withdrawal of all our forces within Turkey,” the PKK said in a statement read out in the Qandil area of northern Iraq.
It released a picture showing 25 fighters who had already traveled there from Turkey. The PKK, which formally renounced its 40-year armed struggle in May, is making the transition from armed insurgency to democratic politics in a bid to end one of the region’s longest conflicts, which claimed about 50,000 lives.
Photo: Reuters
However, it urged Turkey to take the necessary steps to push forward the process which began a year ago when Ankara offered an unexpected olive branch to its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.
“The legal and political steps required by the process ... and the laws of freedom and democratic integration necessary to participate in democratic politics must be put in place without delay,” it said.
The PKK said it wants to pursue a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority in line with a call by Ocalan.
In July they held a symbolic ceremony in the mountains of northern Iraq at which they destroyed a first batch of weapons, which was hailed by Turkey as “an irreversible turning point.”
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