“Turkey has won”: Erdogan after Kurdish PKK fighters disarm

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday his country had achieved victory after Kurdish rebels destroyed their weapons, ending their decades-long armed struggle against Ankara.

"Eighty-six million citizens have won," Erdogan said.

"We know what we are doing. Nobody needs to worry or ask questions. We are doing all this for Turkey, for our future".

Yesterday, thirty Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters, including women, publicly laid down their arms Friday in a ceremony near Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq, two months after the Kurdish group declared an end to four decades of armed conflict against the Turkish state.

The disarmament, described by the PKK as a "historic process," signals a shift from armed insurgency to political engagement, aiming to resolve one of the region's longest-running conflicts that has claimed over 40,000 lives since 1984.

Turkish President Hails Disarmament as Step Towards "Terror-Free" Nation

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lauded the ceremony as "an important step towards a terror-free Turkey” in statements yesterday.

Thirty fighters, including four commanders, burned their weapons in front of the Jasana cave, 50 kilometers west of Sulaymaniyah.

Descending steps to a platform before approximately 300 onlookers and a portrait of PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, two commanders read a statement in Kurdish and Turkish, calling the destruction of weapons a "historic democratic process."

They expressed hope that "this step will bring good, peace, and freedom... at a time when our people are in dire need of a life of freedom, equality, democracy, and peace."

Fighters then cast rifles and machine guns one by one into a pit, setting them ablaze. Many attendees wept at the sight, while others chanted "Long live Apo," Öcalan's nickname.

These fighters are expected to return to their mountain bases in Iraq, a party official previously said.

The PKK, founded by Öcalan in the late 1970s, declared its dissolution and disarmament on May 12, ending a conflict that has long strained Turkey's relations with its Kurdish minority and neighboring countries.

This move followed a call by Öcalan on Feb. 27 from his prison island of İmralı off Istanbul.

The group, designated a "terrorist" organization by Ankara and its Western allies, declared a ceasefire on March 1.