by EuroNews with AP
It’s published
Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan said the “new page of history” has changed after Kurdish PKK extremist groups, which have been in the country’s decades of rebellion, began laying weapons.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, held an iconic ceremony in northern Iraq on Friday. It was the first concrete step towards the promised disarmament as part of the peace process.
At his ruling justice and development party meeting on Saturday, Erdogan welcomed the event as a victory.
“Turkey won, my country won. Our 86 million citizens, Turkey, Kurds and Arabs won,” he said.
“We will not participate or engage in any attempt to threaten our unity, integrity, our homeland, our nation, our peace, our honor, and our pride,” Erdogan added.
The PKK announced in May that it would disband and abandon the armed conflict and end its 40 years of hostilities.
“As of yesterday, the 1947 terrorist tragedy has entered a process of delightfully ending,” Erdogan said. “As of yesterday, Turkey has begun to shut down long, painful, tearful chapters.”
The move comes after PKK leader Abdullah Okaran, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, called on his group in February to urge him to formally disband and disarm him.
Footage from Friday’s event showed fighters (both male and female) throwing rifles and machine guns into a large cauldron, where they flare.
The PKK issued a statement from a fighter jet laying weapons, saying it had disarmed the “goodwill gesture and commitment to practical success” of the peace process.
“We will continue our struggle for freedom, democracy and socialism through democratic politics and legal means from now on,” the statement said.
The state-run Iraqi news agency reported that 30 fighters were “symbolically” disarmed on Friday, and the ongoing disarmament process would be “in phased.” The process is expected to be completed by September, the agency reported.
