PKK must disarm ‘immediately’: Turkiye defense ministry source

AFP
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
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  • Last week, PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan urged his militant group to dissolve and his fighters to lay down their arms in a historic call

ISTANBUL: Outlawed Kurdish group PKK and all groups allied with it must disarm “immediately,” a Turkish defense ministry source said on Thursday, apparently referring to Kurdish forces in Syria.
“The PKK and all groups affiliated with it must end all terrorist activities, dissolve and immediately and unconditionally lay down their weapons,” the source said.
Last week, PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan urged his militant group to dissolve and his fighters to lay down their arms in a historic call.
The 75-year-old founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party has been jailed since 1999.
The PKK, which has engaged in a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state in which tens of thousands of people have died, declared a ceasefire on Saturday and said it would comply with Ocalan’s call.
But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has backed the peace move, was quick to warn that if the promises weren’t kept, the military would continue its anti-PKK operations.
“We always keep our iron fist ready in case the hand we extend is left hanging in the air or bitten,” he said on Saturday.
Since January 1, 478 “terrorists” have been “neutralized” in anti-PKK military operations, the source said, of which 195 were in Iraq and 283 in Syria.

Topics: Turkiye