Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq to hand over weapons in first step toward disarmament
IRBIL Iraq AP A Kurdish militant group that has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey disclosed Thursday its fighters in northern Iraq will begin handing over their weapons marking the first concrete step toward disarmament as part of a peace process The Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK revealed in May it would disband and renounce armed conflict ending four decades of hostilities The move came after PKK leader Abdullah calan who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm calan continues to wield notable influence in the Kurdish movement despite his -year imprisonment His call to end the fighting marked a pivotal step toward ending the decades-long conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the s In the latest progress a group of guerrilla fighters will come down from the mountains and will bid farewell to their arms in an effort to declare their good will for peace and democratic politics the PKK explained in a declaration Thursday The ceremony which is expected to take place between July and July in the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq s semi-autonomous Kurdish region will be the first concrete move toward disarmament Zagros Hiwa a PKK spokesperson noted the fighters will destroy their weapons under the supervision of civil society institutions and interested parties The number of fighters who will take part has not yet been determined but might be between and he revealed For the PKK to take further strategies toward disarmament he announced the regime of isolation imposed on calan in prison has to be abolished and constitutional legal and political must be taken to ensure that the guerrilla who have abandoned the strategy of armed struggle could be reintegrated into democratic politics in Turkey An Iraqi Kurdish official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly reported that an agreement was reached to carry out a symbolic destruction of a few light weapons in order to reassure the Turks in the presence of representatives from the Kurdistan Regional Regime The regional executive is dominated by two parties the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan with the KDP overseeing the regional capital Irbil and the city of Dohuk The PUK governs Sulaymaniyah The KDP has good relations with Turkey and has been at odds with the PKK while the PUK is closer to the PKK In Turkey on Monday Omer Celik a spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan s Justice and Improvement Party or AKP revealed the PKK could begin handing over arms within days but did not provide details Celik added that Erdogan would meet with members of the pro-Kurdish party next week to discuss the peace effort There was no immediate announcement from Turkey s establishment on Thursday s announcement The PKK has long maintained bases in the mountains of northern Iraq Turkish forces have launched offensives and airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq and have set up bases in the area Scores of villages have emptied as a upshot The Iraqi governing body in Baghdad last year disclosed an official ban on the separatist group which has long been prohibited in Turkey Abdul-Zahra announced from Baghdad Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this assessment Source
