ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to host the main mediators of the latest peace process between state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Thursday. The Kurdish group announced on Sunday that it has started withdrawing fighters from Turkey.
The meeting - the third since the latest peace process began - was reported by a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Wednesday, without disclosing the date. However, the DEM Party announced on Sunday that the meeting will take place on Thursday.
The announcement of the date came just hours after the PKK announced a “historic” step by starting to withdraw all fighters from Turkey to its headquarters in the Kurdistan Region’s Mount Qandil.
DEM Party’s parliamentarians, Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar, are the main members of the mediating committee.
On February 27, jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan called on followers to dissolve the party and lay down arms. In May, the PKK positively responded to the call. On July 11, a group of PKK fighters burned their weapons in Jasana Cave in Sulaimani province in a symbolic disarmament as part of the peace process. A Turkish parliamentary commission is now formulating the legal foundations for peace with the PKK.
The PKK on Sunday stated that it expects Ankara to implement legal reforms specifically addressing the organization.
"In this framework, PKK-specific Transitional Law should be taken as the basis, and the necessary freedom and democratic integration laws for participation in democratic politics should be enacted without delay,” said the group.