ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani met on Friday with a delegation from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) that was in the Kurdistan Region to attend a ceremonial disarmament of a group of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters as part of peace talks with Ankara.
President Barzani noted “the importance of intensifying efforts to advance the peace process and praised today's step of PKK disarmament,” according to a statement from his office.
Among the DEM Party delegation were party spokesperson Aysegul Dogan, co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan, veteran Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk, and former lawmaker Leyla Zana.
The DEM Party delegation expressed gratitude for President Barzani’s support and his role in facilitating the peace process between the PKK and the Turkish state, the party said on X.
A group of 30 PKK fighters symbolically burned their weapons in a ceremony in Sulaimani on Friday. The armed group has declared its intention to lay down weapons and pursue a political path in its struggle for Kurdish rights in Turkey.
Dilshad Shahab, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region Presidency, said the Kurdistan Region’s role in hosting the ceremony was met with broad approval from all parties involved, including the Turkish state. The Kurdistan Region has been the site of the majority of clashes between the PKK and Turkish forces for the past several years.
“Unfortunately, in the armed conflict that has existed on the ground the first victim in it has been the Kurdistan Region. We have dozens or I can say hundreds and more of our villages that have suffered damage and harm. We have given human losses. Damage to the environment and economy has befallen the people. And these are the direct impacts,” he told Rudaw.
Turkish military operations, mainly in Duhok province, continued ahead of the disarmament ceremony, according to the US-based Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT).
Founded in 1978, the PKK initially advocated for Kurdish independence, but later shifted its focus to securing political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey.
