“Today marks a new day, a new chapter in history: the day of a new, strong Turkey,” declared Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday during a meeting of his AKP party, following the disarmament of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).
Erdogan proclaimed, “Turkey has won; 86 million citizens have won.” He reminded the audience that over four decades of guerrilla warfare had resulted in at least 50,000 deaths, including 2,000 Turkish soldiers.
The Turkish president announced the creation of a parliamentary committee to oversee the ongoing peace process.
The PKK, regarded as a terrorist organisation in Turkey, the US, and the EU, has waged an armed struggle against the Turkish state since 1984, seeking greater autonomy for the Kurds. Abdullah Öcalan, the group’s leader who has been imprisoned in Turkey since 1999, called for disbandment in February. On Friday, about 30 PKK fighters symbolically destroyed their weapons in the Kurdistan autonomous region in northern Iraq.
