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Turkish lawmakers to vote on report advancing PKK peace process

1 min Mena Today

A Turkish parliamentary commission was set to vote on Wednesday on adopting a draft report to facilitate the disarmament of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which would advance a peace process meant to end a more than 40-year conflict. 

A fighter with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) stands guard during a disarmament process marking a significant step toward ending the decades-long conflict between Turkey and the outlawed group, in the Qandil mountains, Iraq, October 26, 2025. Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani

A fighter with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) stands guard during a disarmament process marking a significant step toward ending the decades-long conflict between Turkey and the outlawed group, in the Qandil mountains, Iraq, October 26, 2025. Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani

A Turkish parliamentary commission was set to vote on Wednesday on adopting a draft report to facilitate the disarmament of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which would advance a peace process meant to end a more than 40-year conflict. 

The roughly 60-page report, shared with reporters ahead of the vote in Ankara, proposes making legal reforms in parallel with the PKK laying down arms, urging the judiciary to review legislation and comply with European Court of Human Rights and Constitutional Court rulings.

Its core objectives are a “terrorism-free Turkey” and strengthening democracy, said the draft, which presents a conditional legal framework that prompted some objections earlier in the week from opposition parties. 

A vote to back the report would shift the peace process to the legislative theatre, where President Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's leader of more than two decades, has an opportunity to end a bloody conflict between the PKK and the state that has sown deep political, economic and social discord at home, and spread violence across borders into Iraq and Syria. 

The commission was formed in August 2025 to support a potential new phase in efforts to end the conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people and stymied economic development in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. 

By Ece Toksabay

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