The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) hit the road this summer after Parliament went into recess to hear public opinion on a string of issues, particularly the terror-free Türkiye initiative. The results of the meetings across Türkiye show substantial support for the initiative, which was started by Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in 2024.
The initiative received the highest level of support from the southeastern and eastern regions, which suffered severely from the terrorist group PKK’s attacks since the 1980s.
The AK Party’s administrative staff, lawmakers and ministers toured Türkiye for “Century of Türkiye” meetings and prepared reports on their observations in the field. The reports, presented to the party’s headquarters, will also be given to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the party aims to draft a road map on solutions to pressing issues included in the reports.
The meetings demonstrated that the terror-free Türkiye initiative or disarmament of the PKK tops the public agenda, and the public largely supports it. The crushing majority of those AK Party officials approve the steps to eradicate terrorism. Nevertheless, a considerable number of people are still not convinced that the PKK would completely abandon arms. Summaries of the report show that the public supported the government to “finish the job” but also warned against the exploitation of the issue, especially by those opposing it. Some far-right parties fervently opposed the initiative, while the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) cautiously welcomed it, before contributing to a parliamentary committee established to tackle the next steps in the initiative.
The most support for the initiative was observed in southeastern Türkiye, which hosts a sizeable Kurdish community. For decades, the PKK exploited disillusioned Kurds to join its violent cause while attacking Kurds opposing its campaign of terrorism.
The initiative seeks to end the PKK’s terrorist campaign that has claimed more than 40,000 lives and to achieve complete disarmament by the end of 2025.
Bahçeli’s unprecedented call last year for the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, to urge disarmament was followed by a symbolic ceremony of PKK terrorists burning their weapons in northern Iraq this summer. Since then, the Parliament’s special committee has held over a dozen sessions with academics, think tanks, business groups and families of terror victims to map out a legislative framework for lasting peace.
President Erdoğan has recently underscored that the process must advance “without betraying the memory of martyrs.” “Together, we will reach the goal of a terror-free Türkiye with patience and hope,” he said at an event where he met families of terror victims and veterans of counterterrorism efforts.
