Seoul Gazette - Turkey eyes legal steps after Kurdish militant group PKK disbands

Monday's announcement sought to draw a line under a bloody chapter that began in 1984 when the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) took up arms, triggering a conflict that cost more than 40,000 lives.

"What matters most is the implementation," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday, pledging to "meticulously monitor whether the promises are kept".

The pro-Kurdish DEM party, a key player that facilitated contact between jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan and the political establishment, urged Ankara on Tuesday to take "confidence-building steps" such as freeing political prisoners.

So far, Turkish officials have said little but the government is working on a proposal that could ease prison sentences in general.

The text, which should be submitted to parliament by June at the latest, provides for the conditional release of all those in pre-trial detention for offences committed before July 31, 2023.

There are also plans to release to house arrest those who are sick, or women with children, if they are serving sentences of less than five years.

The moves could affect more than 60,000 people, Turkish media reports say.

- No general amnesty -

But the authorities are reportedly being careful not to frame it as an "amnesty".

"Sick prisoners should not die in prison... These measures should not be interpreted as a general amnesty, which is not on the agenda," Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said.

But DEM co-chair Tulay Hatimogullari said a move to free prisoners was essential.

"There are nearly 10,000 political prisoners in this country... If a peace process is ever to get under way, they must be released as soon as possible," she said Monday.

For DEM, that must include prisoners like Selahattin Demirtas, the charismatic former leader of a former pro-Kurdish party who has been jailed since 2016.

"With the complete elimination of terror and violence, the door to a new era will open," Erdogan said Monday.

Some prisoners, such as Demirtas or the philanthropist Osman Kavala, who is serving life on charges of "trying to overthrow the government", could in theory be quickly freed if Turkey heeded rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, which has repeatedly demanded their release.

- Proof of disarming -

But before that, Ankara is awaiting concrete proof that the PKK has actually laid down its weapons, Abdulkadir Selvi, a columnist close to the government, wrote in the Hurriyet newspaper.

"The democratic changes will start after the head of the MIT (intelligence services) has submitted his report to President Erdogan," he wrote.

According to Turkish media reports, the MIT will supervise the weapons handover at locations in Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

It will register the weapons handed in and the identity of the fighters in coordination with the Syrian and Iraqi authorities.

"Our intelligence service will follow the process meticulously to ensure the promises are kept," Erdogan said Wednesday.

Most of the PKK's fighters have spent the past decade in the mountains of northern Iraq.

Those who have committed no crime in Turkey will be allowed to return without fear of prosecution.

But the PKK's leaders will be forced into exile in third-party states such as Norway or South Africa, media reports suggest.

- Deposed mayors -

Duran Kalkan, a member of the PKK's executive committee, said Tuesday that renouncing armed struggle "can only be implemented under (Ocalan's) leadership" and when he is guaranteed "free living and working conditions".

Experts say prison conditions for Ocalan, 76, will be "eased" but he is unlikely to leave the Imrali prison island where he has been held since 1999, largely because his life would be threatened.

"Naming trustees (to replace deposed mayors) will become an exceptional measure... after the terrorist organisation is dissolved," Erdogan said, suggesting that Kurdish mayors removed from office over alleged ties to the PKK would be reinstated.

In total, 16 opposition mayors from the DEM and the main opposition CHP have been removed since local elections in March 2024.

H.Baek--SG