Turkey News | PKK Withdraws Fighters From Turkey To Iraq As Part Of Peace Deal With Turkey

A militant Kurdish group announced on Sunday that it is withdrawing its fighters from Turkey to Iraq as part of a peace effort with the Turkish government. The statement delivered in northern Iraq by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, follows a symbolic disarmament ceremony held months earlier, where a group of its fighters began laying down their weapons to show its commitment to the peace process. The group has been waging a decades-long insurgency in Turkey that has led to tens of thousands of deaths since the 1980s. A group of some 25 fighters who had recently arrived from Turkey were present at the news conference. The PKK announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after its leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm. Sunday’s announcement comes days before Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to hold his third meeting with a group Kurdish legislators who have been holding talks with Ocalan on the prison island of Imrali. A separate 51-member parliamentary committee was formed in August to propose and supervise legal and political reforms aimed at advancing the peace process following the PKK’s decision to disband and disarm. Their next meeting is scheduled for Thursday. PKK spokesman Zagros Hiwa said Sunday’s announcement aimed to show the PKK’s determination to move the process forward.