Kurdish PKK May Disarm Within Days After Decades of Violence, Turkey’s AK Party Says

For the past 40 years, the Kurdistan Workers Party has waged a violent insurgency against the Turkish state.

A supporter holds up an image of Abdullah Ocalan, jailed leader of the PKK, in Istanbul on March 21, 2018. Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) may soon begin handing over its weapons in line with a groundbreaking disarmament deal reached earlier this year, Turkey’s ruling AK Party has said.

“I don’t want to give a definite timeline at this stage,” party spokesman Omer Celik told reporters on July 1. “We’ve reached a stage where it could happen in a matter of days.”