Türkiye prepares official PKK disarmament process

Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş announced August 5 for the inaugural session of the cross-party commission overseeing the Kurdistan Workers' Party (recognized as terrorist in Türkiye) disarmament.

"I invite all members of the commission to its first meeting on August 5",

Chairman of the Turkish Parliament said.

The commission, representing all parliamentary factions, will draft legislation to facilitate PKK's disarmament.

It is expected that the commission will develop specific proposals by October – the autumn session of parliament starts this month. Amendments are planned to be made to counterterrorism acts and to the law on the execution of punishments.

This follows PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan's February appeal from prison for his group to lay down arms. Öcalan is in Türkiye serving a life sentence for terrorist activity.

The final decision to disband the PKK was made at a congress in May. The first, mostly symbolic act of surrendering weapons took place on July 11 in the Sulaymaniyah region of Iraqi Kurdistan.