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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday that the country had achieved “victory” after Kurdish militants began destroying their weapons, marking a symbolic end to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) four-decade armed campaign.
The ceremony that saw 30 PKK militants burn their weapons to symbolically mark the farewell to arms for the group was held Friday in Sulaymaniyah, part of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, after a call by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. It is seen as a key moment in the group’s transition from insurgency to engagement in democratic politics.
“Turkey has won. Eighty-six million citizens have won,” Erdoğan said in televised remarks.
“We know what we are doing. Nobody needs to worry or ask questions. We are doing all this for Turkey, for our future,” he added.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, launched its armed insurgency in 1984 after being founded by Ankara University students in 1978.
The conflict has claimed more than 40,000 lives and fueled cycles of violence, political repression and polarization across Turkey and its southeastern provinces.
Yesterday’s ceremony was organized by the PKK under the supervision of civil society observers, was attended by a delegation of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) leaders and drew responses from across Turkey’s political spectrum.
Erdogan’s remarks follow praise from Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli and senior officials in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), who have described the process as a historic opportunity for lasting peace and national unity.
The broader reconciliation process — referred to as “Terror-Free Turkey” by the government and “Peace and Democratic Society” by the DEM Party — continues to hinge on political dialogue, constitutional reforms and calls for Öcalan’s release from İmralı Island Prison.
© Agence France-Presse