Kurdish rebel group PKK says it is withdrawing its fighters from Turkey to Iraq

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QANDIL, Iraq (AP) — A militant Kurdish group announced on Sunday that it is withdrawing its fighters from Turkey to Iraq as part of a peace effort with Turkey.

The statement issued in northern Iraq by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, came months after a group of its fighters began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony, as part of the peace process.

The group has been waging a decades-long insurgency in Turkey that has led to tens of thousands of deaths since the 1980s.

“To prevent any risk of clashes or provocations, we are currently withdrawing all our forces within Turkey to the Medya Defense Area with Abdullah Ocalan’s approval,” Sabri Ok, a member of the Kurdish umbrella organization, the Kurdistan Communittees Union said in a statement, referring to the group's imprisoned leader. The Medya Defense Area is a term often used by the PKK to describe areas in northern Iraq.

“Also, similar regulatory measures are being taken with regard to those positions along the border which could carry the risk of clashes and possible provocations,” Ok said.

The statement also called for legal and political concessions on the part of the Turkish state.

"It is quite clear that we are committed to the resolutions of the 12th Congress and decisive in implementing them," the statement said. "However, for these resolutions to be implemented, certain legal and political approaches — in line with the resolutions of the PKK's 12th Congress ... need to be adopted."

The PKK announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm. In May, the PKK announced it would do so.

In Turkey, Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party said the PKK’s announcement were steps toward the state’s long-term goal of eliminating terrorism within Turkey.

“The PKK’s announcement that it is withdrawing from Turkey and taking new steps toward disarmament are concrete results of the ‘Terror-free Turkey’ road map,” he wrote on X.

He warned against external and internal sabotage efforts, saying “maximum care must be taken to protect the process from any kind of provocation.”

Sunday's announcement comes days before Erdogan is scheduled to hold his third meeting with a group Kurdish legislators who have been holding talks with Ocalan on the prison island of Imrali.

A separate 51-member parliamentary committee was formed in August to propose and supervise legal and political reforms aimed at advancing the peace process following the PKK’s decision to disband and disarm. Their next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 30.

The PKK launched its armed insurgency against Turkey initially with the aim of establishing a Kurdish state in the southeast of the country. Over time, the objective evolved into a campaign for autonomy and rights for Kurds within Turkey.

The group is considered to be a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK have ended in failure — most recently in 2015.

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Kiper reported from Bodrum, Turkey. Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed.