 is expected to focus on verifying the whether the group gave up its arms and managing the return of some members, while excluding any change in the prison status of jailed PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, sources familiar with the drafting told Turkish media.){kind=link}
A planned Turkish law meant to advance a new peace initiative with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is expected to focus on verifying the whether the group gave up its arms and managing the return of some members, while excluding any change in the prison status of jailed PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, sources familiar with the drafting told Turkish media.
The emerging framework, which has not yet been formally submitted to parliament, is expected to be narrow in scope and could include no more than 10 articles, according to the Nefes news website, which cited sources from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The bill would first apply to PKK members who are assessed not to have taken part in separate criminal acts, the report said. Under Turkish law, PKK membership itself is prosecuted as a crime, meaning the provision appears to refer to members who did not take part in armed attacks or other acts beyond affiliation with the group.
The planned legislation would not cover senior PKK figures in its first stage and would include no article granting Öcalan, the imprisoned founder of the PKK, a new legal status or freedom.
The PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, launched an armed campaign against the Turkish state in 1984 in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people. The group initially sought an independent Kurdish state but later shifted its demands toward autonomy and Kurdish rights.
The latest process became public after Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, Erdoğan’s far-right ally, called in October 2024 for Öcalan to urge the PKK to end its armed campaign. Öcalan, who has been held in a prison on İmralı Island near İstanbul since 1999, issued a call in February 2025 for the group to lay down arms and disband.
The PKK announced in May 2025 that it would disband and end its armed campaign. Since then, the process has been marked by disputes over sequencing, with Ankara demanding verified steps from the PKK and Kurdish political actors pressing for legal guarantees.
Erdoğan said Wednesday that his government was working on a legal framework that would speed up the PKK’s disbanding and that it would be put on parliament’s agenda “without too much delay.” He gave no details on the content of the bill.
AKP spokesman Ömer Çelik said this week that the framework would be tied to the PKK’s complete laying down of arms and limited to that issue within a specific time frame.
“This framework will be a framework that comes into force depending on the condition of laying down arms,” Çelik said in remarks reported by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Çelik said a verification mechanism could involve ministries, security units, the National Security Council or a combination of bodies. He said the details would be shaped by Erdoğan.
The bill could be titled “Proposal for a law on the PKK terrorist organization’s laying down of arms, disbanding and legal termination,” AKP sources told Nefes. The report said the name “PKK” is expected to appear in the text, either in the title or in the articles defining the bill’s purpose and scope.
The bill is expected to rely on the verification mechanism included in the final report of the parliamentary National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission, which was set up to oversee the peace process. The commission report tied legal steps to state confirmation that the PKK had laid down its arms.
AKP sources told Nefes that some areas in Zap, Metina, Gara, Hakurk and the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq had been partly vacated but that the verification process must be completed before the laying down of arms can be deemed permanent.
Those covered by the first stage could face judicial supervision measures for a period of time and a political activity restriction of about five years. The status of each person would be reviewed separately, including their role in the organization, any investigations or prosecutions against them and any final convictions.
Party sources said PKK leaders, members convicted of membership and people convicted of aiding the group would not be handled under the same procedure, with different tracks expected for each. The current proposal is focused on the return and social reintegration of members who lay down arms and are not accused of separate acts.
AKP sources said the proposal could be submitted to parliament in the first half of July and passed before lawmakers go on recess after several days of committee debate. Technical work is still continuing, however, and postponement to the new legislative year is also seen as a strong possibility.
The exclusion of Öcalan’s status is likely to be one of the most sensitive parts of the proposal. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which has acted as a main political channel in the process, has long called for his role to be legally recognized.
AKP sources said the bill would not change Öcalan’s status as a convicted prisoner. His meeting rights could be expanded under current prison rules, possibly allowing him to meet with journalists, writers, lawyers, academics and representatives of different social groups, but that would not amount to a status change.
The reported limits of the proposal come as Kurdish political figures urge Ankara to move beyond technical steps on the laying down of weapons and take measures that would show the process can produce gains on rights, democracy and political participation.
Selahattin Demirtaş, the former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said in an article published by the Peace Research Association that the process “now requires concrete, tangible and visible steps.” Demirtaş, who has been jailed since 2016 despite European Court of Human Rights rulings calling for his release, said the process was not being handled by the state with a strategic approach and called on Erdoğan, Bahçeli, main opposition leader Özgür Özel and other political leaders to build a new political ground, end extraordinary measures and reduce tensions.