The terror-free Türkiye initiative, launched in 2024, heads to another critical month. Authorities plan to implement a new strategy to force the PKK terrorist group to speed up the disarmament. In the meantime, some regulations, including a review of the trustee practice for municipalities accused of links to the PKK and the state of PKK convicts with serious illnesses, will likely be under the spotlight as the steps that do not require comprehensive legal amendments.

The PKK slowed down the disarmament process after the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran. The slowdown was nothing new in the initiative as the group dragged its feet again earlier this year when its Syria wing, YPG, violently resisted the integration process with Damascus. The situation in Syria was restored to normalcy when the YPG agreed to continue the integration.

Nowadays, Türkiye aims to persuade the PKK to speed up the process by pushing the group’s jailed ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan, to give further instructions for disarmament, through talks with the Barzani and Talabani political dynasties, which control Northern Iraq, where the PKK’s senior cadres are hiding out, and with the United States, which openly backed the YPG in Syria during the Syrian civil war. Authorities will corner the PKK further in Iraq. Recently, U.S. President Donald Trump questioned the fate of weapons he admitted supplying to "Kurds” during the U.S.-Israel-Iran war, while reports indicate that the said weapons are stored in the PKK’s hideouts.

Türkiye has dismissed reports that the initiative came to a halt. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) set up a timetable for the initiative, and the timetable indicates that any legal amendments for the reintegration of PKK members are out of question without confirmation of the PKK’s full dissolution. On April 29, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan assured that the initiative is ongoing.

Addressing the parliamentary group meeting of the AK Party, Erdoğan said the process was in its due course. "Those bringing about pessimistic scenarios about the process act upon their own doubts rather than the facts. There is a positive atmosphere right now. There are things to do, and the process is continuing as it is expected to continue," he underlined.

"Despite all blatant and secret sabotage attempts, the initiative is now past its 18th month, and we have passed many critical thresholds. With the approval of the committee's reports, we have arrived at another turning point in which we have to act sensibly," he said. He was referring to a report of proposals to Parliament by a parliamentary committee on the initiative.

"We hope to go past this turning point without any problems with the support of political parties," he said.

Erdoğan stressed that they did not heed "empty talk by certain circles about the process." He reiterated his remarks to journalists on April 23 and underlined that "the atmosphere is positive."

"Nothing will change in the process as those seeking to prolong the problem had hoped. We set out on this path to remove one of the biggest obstacles before Türkiye. We set out to eliminate sinister plots in the wider region, to remove the dagger stuck on our brotherhood," he said.

He noted that those posing a challenge to the initiative and those seeking to incite tensions based on the initiative would not be remembered well. Erdoğan urged everyone to act responsibly and avoid rhetoric that would harm the initiative.

Elsewhere, the technical preparations are underway for how to handle the next steps in the disarmament, namely, the surrender of PKK members, subsequent legal proceedings and the fate of weapons that the PKK will lay down. Last year, the PKK inaugurated the disarmament via a symbolic ceremony where its members threw rifles into a fire pit, but this was the only public display of the disarmament.

For concrete legal steps, the government will await the outcome of the "confirmation process” in disarmament, something supervised by the intelligence. Once the confirmation process is concluded, Parliament will start working on bills.