ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Thursday announced that it had withdrawn all its remaining fighters from Turkey and abandoned several tunnels near the Turkish border, describing the moves as part of its commitment to the peace process with Ankara and urging the Turkish government to take further steps to advance it.
“A few days ago our freedom movement withdrew all remaining forces from Turkey that posed no risk of armed confrontation. This is intended to leave the AKP [Justice and Development Party] government with no opportunity to put forward pretexts or use them to justify its inadequate approach to the process,” the group said in a statement carried by the PKK-affiliated ANF news agency.
The PKK, which dissolved itself and decided to lay down arms in May 2025 following a call from its leader Abdullah Ocalan, announced in October of the same year that it would withdraw all its remaining fighters from Turkey. Ocalan has been imprisoned on Turkey’s Imrali island since 1999.
In Thursday's statement, the group also announced the evacuation of “four war tunnels and positions” on Mount Metin, northeast of the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province, near the Turkish border, “so that the Turkish state cannot regard them as a threat.”
“In doing so, we have fulfilled all the requirements of our strategy to end the armed struggle against Turkey and continue the struggle through democratic and political means,” the statement added.
The PKK has used several names since its dissolution, with its latest statement issued under the name “The Kurdish Movement Leadership.”
Turkey’s parliament in August passed a landmark law establishing a legal framework for the reintegration of PKK members, including conditional pardons and legal protections for some members of the group.
“As a freedom movement, we have taken steps toward resolving such problems that have no parallel anywhere else in the world,” the PKK said in Thursday’s statement.
“If the value and significance of these steps are not recognized and no steps are taken toward legislation on freedoms, above all, the freedom of our leadership [Ocalan],” the group said. “This means that the Turkish state is continuing its century-old policy of denial and annihilation.”
Later Thursday, a delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which has played a key mediating role in the peace process, met with officials from the AKP.
According to the pro-DEM Party Mezopotamia news agency, the two sides discussed the peace process and steps to be taken in the coming period.
