Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz will chair the first meeting of the "Board of Monitoring and Assessment" on Monday, established within the framework of the Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Cohesion. The law and the board are the culmination of a monthslong process called terror-free Türkiye, which aims for the disarmament of the terrorist group PKK. The PKK succumbed to calls for dissolution in 2025 after years of violence, and its members are expected to surrender to authorities after the new law was introduced earlier this month. The law is applicable only after verification of the PKK’s full disarmament, which is currently monitored by authorities.

The board has the ministers of justice, foreign affairs, interior, and national defense among its members, along with the presidency’s secretary-general, the intelligence chief, and the secretary-general of the National Security Board (NSB).

Turkish media outlets reported that the first meeting will focus on the establishment of lower boards that will address different aspects of the initiative. The first one to be established will be tasked with coordinating the handover of weapons possessed by the PKK and on-site verification mechanisms to that extent. Most PKK members are holed up in northern Iraq, in a mountainous territory where the group apparently has a complex cave system used as a hideout. The lower board will discuss and determine where and when the weapons will be handed over to authorities. A separate lower board will be tasked with judicial proceedings for PKK members who turn themselves in, and this board will receive input from judicial members in charge of the initiative. According to media reports, this board will also be tasked with classifying the legal files of each PKK member and determining how they can benefit from the new law.

The law includes 12 articles and offers exemption from prosecution for PKK members for a limited time, but only if they are not involved in acts of terrorism and other grave offenses. The deferrals will remain at the discretion of judges, however.

A separate board is scheduled to be created for the social integration and rehabilitation of PKK members who volunteer to return to Türkiye. Experts from the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the Ministry of Health will support this board. Another working board will be responsible for registering PKK members applying for deferrals.

The board led by Yılmaz will regularly brief parliament on its work, while parliament will establish a Monitoring Committee responsible for the next stage of the initiative.

Steps to be taken are contingent upon the publication of an NSB decision confirming that the PKK has laid down its arms. The law includes a stay of prosecution and deferral of sentence execution for PKK members who apply within six months.

The law includes temporary provisions regarding crimes committed within the scope of or in favor of the activities of the PKK and its affiliates. Investigations, prosecutions, and the execution of finalized sentences may be deferred for five or 10 years, depending on the nature of the crime and the severity of the sentence, under the new law.

Intentional homicide committed within the scope of organizational activity, as well as offenses committed before June 1, 2005, that require life imprisonment or aggravated life imprisonment, will be excluded. Consequently, PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan will not be eligible for these provisions. Those who have committed the crime of "intentional homicide" will also remain outside the scope.

Terror-free Türkiye will be on the agenda of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he visits eastern Türkiye this week on the occasion of the anniversary of a Seljuk battle that cemented Turkish rule in the country 955 years ago. Erdoğan and Devlet Bahçeli, head of the government's ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who is credited with launching the terror-free Türkiye initiative, have been a staple of events in the towns of Ahlat and Malazgirt (the latter being the site of the Battle of Manzikert between the Seljuk army and the Byzantine army). Erdoğan is also expected to chair a meeting of his Cabinet in Ahlat. Since 2024, the two men have devoted their keynote speeches there to the initiative. Erdoğan highlighted a "common homeland and common future” in his 2024 speech, and his 2025 message at the celebrations focused on the lasting coexistence of Turks, Kurds, and Arabs in the region. Erdoğan and Bahçeli promote the initiative as something that unifies Turks and Kurds. The PKK started out as a self-styled Kurdish movement and claimed to fight for Kurdish rights and a "Kurdistan” state in eastern Türkiye, where both Ahlat and Malazgirt are located.