Turkish President welcomes PKK disarmament

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the end of the first phase of disarmament of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Saturday, saying that "Turkey has won, 86 million citizens have won."

"We know what we are doing, no one should worry, be afraid, or question; everything we do is for Turkey, for our future, and for our independence," the head of state told members of his party, gathered in a plenary assembly, the day after the end of the first phase of disarmament of the PKK, considered "terrorist."

Four decades of guerrilla warfare have caused “at least 50,000 deaths,” including two thousand Turkish soldiers, Erdogan recalled, quoted by the French news agency, France-Presse (AFP).

About thirty Kurdish fighters, men and women, including four commanders, symbolically destroyed their weapons on Friday during a ceremony in northern Iraq, near their bases in the mountains surrounding the autonomous Kurdistan region.

Erdogan announced the creation of a committee in the Turkish Parliament to continue the peace process “and discuss the legal requirements of the process,” something that worries PKK members.

In an interview with AFP on Friday in Iraq, PKK co-president Bese Hozat called for security guarantees before fighters can return to Turkey: "Without legal and constitutional guarantees, we will end up in prison or dead," she said, adding that "today is a new day, a new page in history, it is the day of a new, strong Turkey."

The PKK, which aimed to create a Kurdish state independent of Turkey, decided to put an end to more than four decades of fighting against Turkish forces, which left more than 40,000 dead, after years in which they were forced to retreat to the mountains of northern Iraq.

On May 12, the PKK announced its dissolution and the end of more than four decades of guerrilla warfare that had caused more than 40,000 deaths, in response to an appeal made at the end of February by its historic leader Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned since 1999 on the prison island of Imrali, off Istanbul.

At the end of June, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that he would meet in the coming days with a delegation from the People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM, formerly HDP – Peoples' Democratic Party), the main pro-Kurdish political force in Turkey, which played a key role in the exchange of messages between Ocalan and Ankara.

This gesture by the Turkish head of state came after he announced, on May 27, the creation of a legal team to draft a new Constitution, which some analysts and opponents said feared Erdogan intends to remain in power, since he cannot run for re-election.

Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) and nationalist allies lack the votes needed to approve a new constitution.

Some analysts said they believe the government's recent push to end the decades-long conflict with the PKK is part of a strategy to win the support of a pro-Kurdish party in parliament.

The Turkish army maintains dozens of positions in autonomous Kurdistan in northern Iraq, from where it has for years conducted ground and air operations against the PKK, which has been forced to withdraw.