The PKK formally abandoned its 40-year armed struggle in May and held a symbolic ceremony in July to destroy its first weapons.
Published October 26, 2025
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has announced it will withdraw all troops from Turkiye to northern Iraq as part of a peace process with Turkiye, ending a months-long disarmament process after four decades of armed conflict that have left tens of thousands of people dead.
“We are carrying out the withdrawal of all troops in Turkiye,” the Kurdish PKK said in a statement read out in Qandil district in northern Iraq on Sunday, according to an AFP reporter who attended the ceremony.
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The newspaper published a photo showing 25 fighters, eight of them women, who had already arrived at the site from Turkiye.
A spokesperson for Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) wrote in a post on X that the PKK’s announcement was within the framework of the “Turkiye process without terrorism.”
Omer Çelik said the government considers the announcement and its continuation as a “strategic and historic step.”
The PKK formally abandoned its four-decade-long armed struggle in May, but is now transitioning from armed insurgency to democratic politics to end one of the region’s longest conflicts, which has killed around 50,000 people.
But it urged Turkiye to take the necessary steps to advance the process, which began a year ago when the Turkish government extended an unexpected olive branch to jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan.
“The legal and political measures necessary for this process and the laws on freedom and democratic consolidation necessary for participation in democratic politics must be implemented without delay,” the ministry said.
The group said it wanted to pursue a democratic struggle to protect the rights of the Kurdish minority, in line with Öcalan’s historic call.
In July, the group held a symbolic ceremony in the mountains of northern Iraq to destroy its first weapon, which Turkiye hailed as an “irreversible turning point.”
“Today is a new day. A new page has been opened in history. Today, the doors of the great and powerful Turkiye are thrown wide open,” Erdoğan said at the time.
An end to the conflict between Turkiye and the militant group could have far-reaching implications for the region, including in neighboring Syria, where the United States has an alliance with Syrian Kurdish forces, which Ankara views as an offshoot of the PKK.
