{"id":118,"date":"2025-07-12T12:33:46","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T12:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=118"},"modified":"2025-07-12T12:33:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T12:33:46","slug":"erdogan-hails-new-page-in-turkeys-history-as-kurdish-fighters-lay-down-arms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=118","title":{"rendered":"Erdo\u011fan hails new page in Turkey\u2019s history as Kurdish fighters lay down arms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=d0c7171c-02e9-4150-b6c6-b4fadd353fb3\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Turkey\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan said the country had \u201cturned\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. a new page in history\u201d as Kurdish militants began to hand over their weapons in the latest step to end a four-decade insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.<\/p>\n<p>A group of 30 fighters from the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) gathered near their base in northern Iraq on Friday and burned their rifles in a symbolic first step towards disarmament. <\/p>\n<p>The move comes after their jailed leader Abdullah \u00d6calan, who is serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison, ordered them to disband earlier this year. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe scourge of terrorism has begun the process of ending,\u201d Erdo\u011fan told members of his party in a televised speech on Saturday. \u201cToday a new page in history has been turned. The doors to a great and strong Turkey, to the Turkish century, have been flung wide open.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was Erdogan\u2019s most public expression of support yet for the effort to end the conflict with the PKK, which Turkey, the EU and US list as a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n<p>He acknowledged \u201cmistakes\u201d the Turkish state had made in battling the PKK, including extrajudicial killings, torture in prisons and restrictions on the Kurdish language, and said the conflict had cost the Turkish economy $2tn since the PKK took up arms in 1984.<\/p>\n<p>Erdo\u011fan also said that ending the conflict with the PKK would bring \u201cpeace and security\u201d to Kurds in neighbouring countries, including Syria where US-backed fighters affiliated with the PKK run a large swath of the country beyond the control of the government in Damascus. <\/p>\n<p>Turkey has launched several military operations against the Syrian Kurdish group since 2016 and now wants it to integrate with Syrian security forces following the fall of Bashar al-Assad last year.<\/p>\n<p>Erdo\u011fan\u2019s last attempt to end hostilities with the PKK collapsed in 2015, unleashing the deadliest fighting in the conflict and a government crackdown on the legal Kurdish political movement. Thousands of activists remain in prison.<\/p>\n<p>Erdo\u011fan did not offer any concrete measures in his speech on Saturday, but said he hoped a planned parliamentary commission to consider legal changes would have broad support. He signalled that the pro-Kurdish Peoples\u2019 Equality and Democracy party, or Dem, would work with his rightwing governing alliance to see through reforms.<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"8af336ea-d3c2-4855-b36a-7e26837a20aa\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2048\/1152\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"o-teaser__image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2F__origami%2Fservice%2Fimage%2Fv2%2Fimages%2Fraw%2Fhttps%253A%252F%252Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%252Fproduction%252Fe6bd10a2-28bd-4fb0-b8b8-37b709752e22.jpg%3Fsource%3Dnext-article%26fit%3Dscale-down%26quality%3Dhighest%26width%3D700%26dpr%3D1?source=next&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;dpr=2&amp;width=240\" alt=\"Erdogan, centre; Kurdistan PKK fighters, left; a rally in March against the arrest of Istanbul\u2019s mayor, right\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Dem, which is leftwing and the Turkish parliament\u2019s third-biggest party, has called for the release of political prisoners and constitutional protections for Kurdish cultural rights. <\/p>\n<p>The PKK on Friday reiterated its call for \u00d6calan\u2019s freedom. He was convicted in 1999 for treason.<\/p>\n<p>The Turkish government has not formally agreed to any of the demands, and Erdo\u011fan said in his speech that the peace process has not involved negotiation or bargaining. <\/p>\n<p>Erdo\u011fan needs Dem lawmakers\u2019 votes if he is to change the constitution to abolish term limits or to call snap elections, should he decide to run for president again in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Barrack, American ambassador to Turkey and US President Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy to Syria, said Washington was prepared to help resolve Turkey and Syria\u2019s disputes with Kurdish groups and would be<br \/>willing to resettle fighters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe US will do its best to ensure a fair and proper decision is made. If they want to come to America and live with us, they can do so,\u201d Barrack told Turkey\u2019s state-run Anadolu news agency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Erdo\u011fan #hails #page #Turkeys #history #Kurdish #fighters #lay #arms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Turkey\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan said the country had \u201cturned\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. a new page in history\u201d as Kurdish militants began to hand over their weapons in the latest step to end a four-decade insurgency that has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[73,65,71,66,69,70,72,67,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-arms","9":"tag-erdogan","10":"tag-fighters","11":"tag-hails","12":"tag-history","13":"tag-kurdish","14":"tag-lay","15":"tag-page","16":"tag-turkeys"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}