Turkish officials are starting to map out the first steps in the dissolution of the PKK after the terrorist group began disarming to end its four-decadelong terror campaign last week.
Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş on Friday received the representatives of political parties, including ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), its ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which oversaw the talks with the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan.
“Kurtulmuş and the deputy coordinators of the political parties discussed the working method and process of the commission that will be established and hold its first meeting in the coming days for the terror-free Türkiye initiative,” a statement from the Parliament said.
The party representatives conveyed their views on the process.
The Good Party (IP) will not be providing members to the commission or participating in its work, Deputy Chair Buğra Kavuncu told Kurtulmuş, according to the statement.
Kurtulmuş stressed the key responsibilities Parliament will take on for the construction of a terror-free Türkiye, during which it’s vital that all parties demonstrate a united approach, the statement said.
The terror-free Türkiye initiative was launched last year by MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, who called on Öcalan to appeal to the PKK to lay down arms.
Soon, his call evolved into a new initiative that saw DEM Party lawmakers visiting Öcalan in the island prison where he is incarcerated in the Marmara Sea. As a result and in a landmark development, the PKK in May announced its dissolution and the end of its four-decade terror campaign that cost tens of thousands of lives in Türkiye, as well as in Iraq and Syria.
Most recently, in a ceremony across the border in Iraq last week, PKK members destroyed their weapons as part of a peace process.
“Yesterday, the 47-year-old scourge of terror has, God willing, entered the process of ending,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said upon the developments. “Today is a new day; the doors of a great, powerful Türkiye have been flung wide open.”
The Turkish president promised tight oversight of the PKK disarmament process and warned Ankara would respond firmly in case the process fails.
