Al -Jazeera Net Correspondents
7/11/2025–|Last update: 21:23 (Mecca time)
Erbil- Today, Friday, the “Jasnah” cave in the Surdash area in Dukan district, north of Sulaymaniyah Governorate, witnessed today, Friday, a ceremony for delivering and burning weapons of 30 militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party, including four of its great leaders, as a symbolic step to support the peace process with Turkey, in response to the invitation of his imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, issued on February 27.
In a statement of the Kurdistan society system, which is the party and administrative body of the party that supervised this initiative, it said that the move comes in the name of the “Peace and Democratic Society Group” to accelerate the democratic transformation, reducing their commitment to the approach of Ocalan based on the power of politics and peace as a substitute for arms, demanding physical freedom for it and a fair solution to the Kurdish issue, and calling on regional and international powers to support the peace process.
For his part, Sazai Melchli, deputy head of the Equality Party and Democracy of PeoplesThe Kurdistan workers surrendered to their weapons as an “important step”, calling on the Turkish government to take steps corresponding to the success of the party’s dissolution process, and ensuring the political rights of the fighters who are deported within Turkish law.
welcome
Tamleli stressed that the movements of Ocalan and the Kurdistan workers play an important role in consolidating democracy in Türkiye and the region, calling for changing the concept of “Türkiye without terrorism” to support a democratic solution.
In Erbil, the President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani, welcomed this step, and considered it an “important gospel for the peace process”, stressing the region’s readiness to provide all kinds of support and facilities for its success. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also thanked and everyone who helped to launch this initiative, calling on all parties to seize the opportunity to achieve peace that serves everyone in Ankara and the region.
In this context, a spokesman for the region’s presidency, Dilshad Shihab, told Al -Jazeera Net, “Today, a very important operation took place in Iraqi Kurdistan, which is the beginning of an actual step within the peace process. We in the region are very happy because it took place on our land.”
He added that since the beginning of these efforts, and in the past years, when the situation was at the height of tension, the Kurdistan region and its president tried – to reopen the peace path, “Therefore, we are grateful to both the Turkish government and Oglan, as they looked at great importance to the position of the region. This is a great evidence that it is a source of security and stability in the region, and not as some parties want to portray it otherwise.”
An exceptional event
For his part, Sherif and Razir, representative of the Islamic Justice Group of Justice, who participated in these ceremonies, said to Al -Jazeera Net, that it is the first time that Iraqi Kurdistan has witnessed a development of this kind between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, where a handover or burning ceremony took place.
He considered that “the event was actually exceptional, as we saw these fighters descending from the mountains behind their leader and standing in front of the guests and then burning the weapons they were carrying.”
In the opinion of Warzer, there is no doubt that this process is difficult, and that the two parties have a long time and many challenges, stressing that the process will not succeed from one side only, but Turkey must also take some steps to show its good intentions, such as amending some of the articles of the constitution. The local and regional parties must have a positive role.
Although the various parties and brokers have a lot of hope towards this step and believe that this war is approaching its end, many experts question the arrival of this process to full success, because similar steps have been taken previously and have not succeeded, and at the same time there is a great lack of confidence between Ankara and the Kurdistan workers.
Lack of confidence
“This operation is directly managed between the Turkish state and the Emerali prison,” that is, no role was granted to the PKK. “
Therefore, he believes that “there is a state of very great confidence between the state and the party. Ankara does not trust the Qandil Mountains (the stronghold of the Kurdish fighters), and vice versa.
Rosa explained that “the Kurdistan workers in his name and other names have a strong presence inside Syria, and they created an army and an administration of their own that they manage themselves. Also, we do not forget that the Turkish domestic policy is the one that directs its foreign policy, and now Ankara is coming to the elections and any change in the ruling will have a direct impact on this process. Therefore, what happened today is considered a tactical and symbolic step more than being a complete end to the war or starting to end War.
According to government statistics, the war between Turkey and the Kurdish workers during the past years has caused the destruction or threat of more than a thousand villages in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, including nearly 200 villages, most of which were completely destroyed in Dohuk Governorate, followed by Erbil and then Sulaymaniyah, while 600 other villages face the risk of complete destruction.
Therefore, any attempt to make this process a success will open the path and hope for these villagers to return to their lands again, to be rebuilt again, and provide them with the basic services that the Kurdistan government could not provide to them previously because of this war.
