According to officials from the security department of the Kurdish Autonomous Region (Kurdistan Region) in Iraq, the first batch of 30 members of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) plans to disarm on the 10th of this month in the Kurdistan Region.
The PKK was founded by Öcalan in the late 1970s, seeking to establish an independent state through force in the Kurdish-populated areas on the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. The Kurdish people are one of the major ethnic groups in the Middle East, with a total population of about 30 million, mainly distributed in these four countries.
The headquarters of the PKK are located in the Kurdistan Region, and in recent years, its activities have mainly been in northern Iraq and northern Syria.
Öcalan issued a statement at the end of February, publicly calling on this anti-government armed group, which has been at odds with the Turkish government for more than 40 years, to lay down their arms and disband. Following Öcalan’s orders, the PKK announced a ceasefire in March and a dissolution with weapons being laid down in May.
According to previous reports by Turkish media, Turkey will establish a mechanism to supervise the PKK’s disarmament, with officials from the Turkish National Intelligence Organization supervising and coordinating with the security departments of Iraq and Syria to complete the registration of armed personnel and the surrender of weapons at different locations in these three countries. (By Mi Chunze, CCTV)