“The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), recognised as a terrorist in Turkey, the US and the EU, has announced the withdrawal of troops from Turkey as part of disarmament, Reuters reported.
The PKK said it had decided to withdraw all its forces to lay the foundations of “free, democratic and fraternal life.” The party’s statement also said Ankara should pass appropriate laws to integrate the Kurds.
In May, the PKK announced its self-dissolution after its life-imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan called on its imprisoned leader to end the armed struggle against the Turkish state and lay down his arms. Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and Syria began disarming over the summer.
A spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party said the PKK’s decision to withdraw was an achievement of Ankara’s goals.
The PKK has established itself in northern Iraq after being pushed beyond Turkey’s southeastern border in recent years. The Turkish military regularly strikes Kurdish bases in the region and has established several military outposts there. Ankara says it protects Kurdish rights but will not allow separatism.
In 1974 Abdullah Ocalan organised a left-wing movement, which in 1978 became the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. In 1979 Ocalan moved to Syria, where with the support of Hafez Assad’s regime and Soviet special services he formed armed detachments. Since 1984, the party waged an armed struggle against Turkey, adhering to the ideas of Marxism-Leninism.
In 1999, after Ankara’s pressure on Damascus, Ocalan left Syria. He was kidnapped in Kenya with the help of American and Israeli intelligence services and handed over to Turkey. He was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. Since then, he has been held on the island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara.
The PKK initially favoured an independent Kurdistan, but later softened its demands to include greater Kurdish rights and autonomy in southeastern Turkey.
Attempts at reconciliation between Turkey and the PKK have been made repeatedly. The most recent truce lasted from 2013 to 2015 and was scrapped after PKK-affiliated Syrian Kurdish militias increased their control in northeastern Syria.