PKK members to surrender in gesture toward initiative

Around 30 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, are expected to surrender to security forces Monday as a gesture toward the government for its efforts to solve the Kurdish issue.

Seen as the first concrete consequence of the government’s initiative, the surrenders will take place in Silopi, a district of the southeastern Anatolian province of Şırnak, near the Iraqi border. Members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, will also be present.

“The PKK has decided to send peace groups to Turkey following the call of [imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah] Öcalan, in a move designed to give a chance to peace and to pave the way for democratic politics,” the DTP leadership said in written statement over the weekend.

The PKK members are set to arrive in Turkey in three different groups, each with no fewer than 10 people. The first group will come from the Mahmour Refugee Camp in northern Iraq, which hosts around 10,000 people, mostly from Turkey. This group will comprise mainly women and children. The second group will come from the Kandil Mountains, where the PKK has its headquarters and training camps. The rest will come from different European countries, where a number of PKK members reside.

Welcoming the development, President Abdullah Gül on Sunday called on all terrorists to lay down their arms and return home. “The world’s resolve and the regional conditions offer us great opportunities to end terrorism. I am sure everybody sees it. Our wish is to deal with it without bloodshed. There are laws allowing [terrorists] to return home,” he said in an interview with the state broadcaster.

“I hope this opportunity will not be missed,” Gül said. “It’s not possible to struggle against an enormous state, the Turkish state, and to live in the mountains for a lifetime.”

According to Turkish officials, these groups are selected from among the PKK members who have not committed any crimes and who have no criminal records that would lead to prosecution.

“If everything goes without hindrance, we expect the surrender of 70 to 100 terrorists,” a high-level Turkish official told daily Radikal. The same official foresaw that the first groups will be comprised of high-ranking members of the PKK and hinted that there could be more surrenders if the first groups are not mistreated.

According to Article 221 of the Penal Code, people who joined the PKK but did not commit any crimes can bypass prosecution if he or she surrenders. In recent months, only a few people from among the dozens who surrendered have faced prosecution.

“We want to express that we see this step as a historic one,” DTP co-leaders Ahmet Türk and Emine Ayna said in the written statement. They called on the government not to abuse it and recalled that the PKK made a similar move in 1999 right after Öcalan was captured.

“Ten years later, Turkey once again has the opportunity,” they stated. “It should not spoil it by repeating the same mistakes made in 1999. This is our expectation and our hope.”

The move was also positively received by the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP. “I welcome the PKK’s decision to leave behind terrorist methods and quit the mountains in search of a normal life in Turkey. The PKK should permanently lay their weapons down. They should give up armed struggle,” Baykal told reporters in Antalya on Sunday.

But, having said that, Baykal added, his party would not back any initiative that would harm the unity of Turkey. “These surrenders should not be seen as part of a larger negotiation with Turkey,” he said.

Oral Çalışlar, a columnist for daily Radikal, said that with the PKK’s move the process had entered a new phase that could accelerate the hopes for a peaceful solution. “There is a need for a softer political climate to speed up the return of members of the PKK,” he wrote Sunday.

Underlining that the public’s increasingly positive psychological mood should also be endorsed by political leaders, especially the opposition, he asked all leaders to be brave enough to move forward toward the solution.

The PKK’s move is seen as a gesture from the terrorist organization to the government for its widespread, months-long campaign to solve the Kurdish issue. It will also take place just a day before the crucial National Security Council, or MGK, meeting in which the current situation with regard to the government’s move will be evaluated.