ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Presidency's spokesperson on Thursday thanked Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for their "confidence" in the Region to host the historic ceremony where tens of PKK fighters will lay down arms.
Speaking to reporters in Zakho, Duhok province, on Thursday as dozens of delegates from Turkey arrived to attend the PKK disarmament ceremony, Kurdish presidential spokesperson Dilshad Shahab thanked all parties involved in the Ankara-PKK peace talks for their confidence in the Kurdistan Region to host such a historic event.
"This is an internal affair of Turkey, but because of the confidence they have in the Kurdistan Region and because of the Region's peacemaking efforts [in the past]... we will do our best to make this process succeed," he added.
Shahab noted that the Region is not directly involved in the process but is instead acting in a supportive capacity.
"This is a Turkish internal affair but we are neighbors and the Kurdistan Region has borne the brunt of the conflict in the region and thousands of our villages have been evacuated,” the spokesperson stressed.
A group of PKK fighters is expected to destroy their weapons during a ceremony scheduled to take place in Sulaimani province on Friday. It marks the first formal step in a peace initiative mediated by the DEM Party to end the four-decade conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives.
Keskin Bayindir, the co-chair of DEM Party's sister party, Democratic Regions Party (DBP), who arrived in Zakho along with the other delegates said during a press conference that they have come to the Region “to witness a historic moment.” He also described the Friday event as “the beginning of an honorable peace.”
He thanked the Kurdistan Region’s authorities for warmly welcoming them at the border.
The PKK is headquartered in the rugged Qandil mountains of the Kurdistan Region, a remote area spanning approximately 50 square kilometers near the tri-border region of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran.
The ceremony follows a February appeal from the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, for the group to abandon armed conflict in favor of political engagement.
Founded in 1978, the PKK initially sought to establish an independent Kurdish state but in recent decades has shifted toward advocating for greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. It is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.
