ANKARA,— Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants pulled out of four camps in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, known as Southern Kurdistan, marking the first move in a planned disbandment, Turkish security sources said Monday, Reuters reported.
Turkey’s parliament passed a law in August 2026 laying out terms for the PKK’s dissolution, part of a peace process meant to end a decades-long conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and devastated Northern Kurdistan, the predominantly Kurdish southeast region.
The law grants protections to many former fighters who have not committed specific crimes and allows suspended sentences for some convicted of PKK membership, opening a path for their return to civilian life.
Security sources said PKK fighters withdrew starting last Thursday from the Hebat, Yajk, Sabri and Sason camps in the Baze district of Iraq’s Kurdistan Metina region, calling it proof the peace process continues moving forward.
Once all activity ends, PKK members may enter social integration programs covering education, economic support and other fields under the legal framework guiding disbandment, the sources added.
Turkey, which maintains NATO’s second-largest military force, opened peace talks with the PKK in late 2024, though the process almost collapsed this year because of the Iran war and worries about instability across the region.
The PKK launched its armed campaign in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, aiming to build an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey before shifting its goal toward autonomy and Kurdish political rights.
Kurds represent close to 30% of Turkey’s 85 million people, a figure drawn from 2012 data, while Turkish officials say more than 40,000 soldiers and Kurdish guerrilla fighters have died in the fighting.
Last month, Turkey agreed to gradually transfer a military camp used by its forces in Iraqi Kurdistan to the government in Baghdad, part of a broader shift in security arrangements tied to the peace process.
(With files from Reuters)
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