After decades of conflict, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday welcomed the ceremony, which saw fighters from...

Kurdistan Workers' Party

By burning their weapons in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq, he described it as a very important positive step towards achieving Türkiye's goal of completely eliminating terrorism.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party lays down its weapons

Erdogan: A step towards a terrorism-free Türkiye

In his first official response to the initiative, Erdogan stated that his government had initiated the peace process with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), expressing hope that this step would bear fruit in achieving stability. He added,"We ask God to help us achieve security for our country and lasting peace in our region."

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I am happy, I am happy to hear from you that I will be happy to help you, God will protect you from all over the world. 🇹🇷

— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan)

July 11, 2025

The Kurdistan Workers' Party ends its conflict with the Turkish regime.

In a symbolic step marking the beginning of the weapons surrender process recently announced by the party as part of the ongoing peace process, a special ceremony was held in an area near the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq on Friday during which thirty Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters, including a number of women, officially surrendered their weapons. This comes after they announced two months ago the end of their armed conflict that lasted for more than forty years against the Turkish state, according to Sky News Arabia.

PKK'lı teröristlerin silahlarını yaktığı anlar:

— Boşuna Tıklama (@bosunatiklama)

July 11, 2025

This initiative comes in response to a call by the party's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, from his prison on Imrali Island off the coast of Istanbul on February 27. The party declared an official ceasefire on March 1, despite its continued designation as a terrorist organization by Turkey and Western countries.

The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) confirmed in a statement that this step represents the first phase of implementing the decision to withdraw and end armed action, which was approved during the party's 12th conference last May.

Burning PKK weapons

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), founded by Abdullah Ocalan in the late 1970s, announced on May 12 its decision to dissolve the organization and abandon its armed struggle, ending decades of conflict that had cast a shadow over Ankara's relations with the Kurds and regional states.

For its part, the Turkish government considered the ceremony a historic turning point and an irreversible shift in the peace process, praising it as a pivotal point toward ending the armed conflict with the Kurdish party.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party lays down its weapons

In the same context, Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government authorities announced that they had shot down two drones on Thursday night near Peshmerga positions, just hours before the weapons handover ceremony. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Kurdistan Workers' Party

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is a Kurdish-oriented armed political organization based in the Kurdish-majority mountainous regions of southeastern Türkiye, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syria.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party lays down its weapons

The party was founded on November 27, 1978, and has since been engaged in an asymmetric armed conflict with the Turkish state, within the framework of what is known as the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, with several ceasefires, most notably between 1993 and 2013-2015.

Although the party initially aspired to establish an independent Kurdish state, its orientations shifted in the 1990s, when it adopted a new program focused on achieving autonomy and strengthening Kurdish political and cultural rights within the Turkish state.