ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday hailed begin of a disarmament course of by militant Kurdish separatists as the tip of a “painful chapter” in Turkey’s troubled historical past.
Erdogan informed a gathering of his ruling AKP social gathering in Ankara that the greater than 40-year-old “scourge of terrorism” for which the Kurdistan Employees’ Occasion – or PKK – was accountable is on its technique to ending.
Erdogan’s remarks got here a day after female and male members of the PKK in northern Iraq forged rifles and machine weapons into a big cauldron the place they have been set on fireplace. The symbolic transfer was seen as step one towards a promised disarmament as a part of a peace course of aimed toward ending 4 a long time of hostilities.
The transfer got here after PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island close to Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm. In Could the PKK introduced that it will accomplish that.
The PKK had waged an armed insurgency towards Turkey since 1984, initially with the intention of building a Kurdish state within the southeast of the nation. Over time, the target developed right into a marketing campaign for autonomy and rights for Kurds inside Turkey.
The battle, which unfold past Turkey’s borders into Iraq and Syria, killed tens of hundreds of individuals. The PKK is taken into account to be a terrorist group by Turkey, the USA and the European Union.
Earlier peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK have led to failure — most lately in 2015.
“At this time the doorways of a terrific Turkey, a powerful Turkey, a Turkish century have been opened broad,” Erdogan stated.
In a press release issued on Friday, the PKK stated the fighters who have been laying down their weapons, saying that that they had disarmed “as a gesture of goodwill and a dedication to the sensible success” of the peace course of.
“We’ll henceforth proceed our battle for freedom, democracy, and socialism by way of democratic politics and authorized means,” the assertion stated.
However Erdogan insisted that there had been no bargaining with the PKK. “The fear-free Turkey mission is just not the results of negotiations, bargaining or transactions.” Turkish officers haven’t disclosed if any concessions have been given to the PKK in alternate for laying down their arms.
The Turkish president additionally stated {that a} parliamentary fee could be established to supervise the peace course of.
