Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Monday hailed the withdrawal of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants from Turkish soil as a “critical” step that completed the first phase of Ankara’s peace process with the Kurdish group.
The PKK, which has pursued four decades of violence against the government, began withdrawing its forces on Sunday, urging Turkey to take the necessary legal steps to advance the process that began a year ago, when Ankara offered an olive branch to its jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan.
“This decision to withdraw is the most concrete expression of [the PKK’s] resolve on the path to peace,” DEM Party Co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan told reporters, describing it as “one of the most critical and significant steps.”
Our Co-Chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan held a press conference in Ankara regarding the PKK’s withdrawal from Turkey as part of the Peace and Democratic Society Process.
1/3 pic.twitter.com/5XIsEjZncy— DEM Party English (@DemPartyEnglish) October 27, 2025
“At this point, the first phase of the [peace] process has concluded,” he said, urging the government to press ahead with the “critical and vital second phase … [of] legal and political steps.”
“Parliament must facilitate and develop this process. Legal arrangements must be made for the transition period. These will not only be technical arrangements, they will be the building blocks of peace,” he said.
“A solution to the Kurdish issue means the democratization of Turkey, we all win.”
Indirect talks with the PKK began late last year with the backing of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with the DEM Party, Turkey’s third-biggest party, playing a key role in facilitating the emerging agreement.
It has said it will meet with Erdoğan on Thursday.
Turkey has set up a parliamentary commission to lay the groundwork for the peace process and prepare a legal framework for the political integration of the PKK and its fighters.
A senior PKK leader said Sunday it was essential the commission “immediately” meet with Öcalan, whose historic call in February led to his fighters decision in May to renounced the armed conflict, drawing a line under four decades of violence that has claimed some 40,000 lives.
It also urged Turkey to take the necessary legal steps to determine the fate of those who renounce the armed campaign.
© Agence France-Presse