The bloody chapter has been left behind and peace and democracy won today, Devlet Bahçeli, the architect of the terror-free Türkiye initiative, said Monday after PKK terrorist group announced its dissolution.
With the PKK’s decision to disband, the seeds of peace planted with patience and sacrifice across Türkiye have at last blossomed, Bahçeli said in a statement.
The PKK on Monday announced it is disbanding and renouncing armed conflict as part of the initiative, ending four decades of bloodshed in Türkiye.
The decision by the PKK, which promises to put an end to one of the longest terror campaigns in the Middle East and could have a significant impact in Türkiye, came days after the PKK convened a congress in northern Iraq where it holds a stronghold in a mountainous region.
It was in line with a call from its jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan to his group to convene a congress and formally decide to disband and disarm.
It was Bahçeli, head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and ally to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), who launched the initiative last year.
Bahçeli, a usually hardliner politician against any concessions to the PKK, suggested Öcalan could be granted parole if his group renounces violence and disbands.
“The environment of peace and security must be permanent and realistic,” Bahçeli said in his statement, urging an end to “prejudices, flimsy disputes and cheap polemics.”
