Ankara confirmed the evacuation of four Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps, possibly clearing the way for the second phase of the “Terror-Free Turkey” process.
The announcement means all eyes are now on the year’s final National Security Council (MGK) meeting, which is expected to issue the decision that would trigger mechanisms to allow former PKK members to apply for reduced or suspended sentences.
On Oct. 12, Anadolu Agency quoted security sources as saying the Hebat, Yajk, Sabri and Sason shelter areas in the Baze district of Metina, northern Iraq, had been vacated on Oct. 8.
An intelligence report had been expected to reach the MGK for its September meeting. However, security sources said the work of units in Syria and Iraq over the past two months had not yet reached a level that would allow a “positive status report.”
The progress in Metina raised expectations that a positive report could reach the council at its November meeting.
Once the PKK and the related organization KCK end all activities, members who return to Turkey under the law are expected to go through social reconciliation in later stages of the process, Anadolu Agency reported.
“Integration programs in education, the economy and other fields aim to bring them back into society.” These steps would help secure lasting domestic peace in Turkey, according to the report.
STATEMENTS DIFFER
The PKK side announced the withdrawal on Oct. 8.
In a statement issued on behalf of the dissolved PKK under the name “Movement Leadership” said the group’s forces inside Turkey had also “completely withdrawn.”
“Despite this, our Freedom Movement completely withdrew, a few days ago, its forces inside Turkey that posed no risk of conflict, so that the AKP government can no longer offer any excuse or use them to justify its inadequate approach to the process. In addition, although they are far from the border, we evacuated the four combat tunnels and positions in Metina, west of Zap, in the same days, so that the Turkish state would not see them as a threat,” the statement said.
The security sources’ Oct. 12 statement made no mention of any movement inside Turkey.
MHP Deputy Chair Feti Yıldız said the process would produce results by the end of November, with around 2,800 people set to benefit from the law.
He underlined that the senior PKK figures will not benefit from the law.
BAKIRHAN: ‘WE WILL NOT LEAVE THE TABLE’
DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan was in Erbil, northern Iraq, on Oct. 12, the same day security sources made the statement that moved the process into a new phase.
Speaking at the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) Forum, Bakırhan assessed the process in Turkey, the regional dimension of the Kurdish question and the steps ahead.
The process cannot be reduced to security alone, Bakırhan said. Language, identity, equal citizenship, local democracy and democratic politics must also be part of the solution, he said.
He acknowledged that the process was moving slowly. “Rest assured, we will not be the ones to leave that table. Despite everything, we will continue to stay at that table until the end,” he said.
‘IT WILL BE BROUGHT TO A CONCLUSION SHORTLY’
MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli also spoke of advancing the process.
“The ‘Terror-Free Turkey’ steps will continue to be taken with seriousness and sincerity and will be brought to a conclusion as soon as possible,” Bahçeli said at his party’s parliamentary group meeting.
Bahçeli linked the process to the people of Turkey’s will to live together. He said there were efforts to sabotage its progress. “Let us say it up front: Turkey will not turn back from its path, and the Turkish nation will not turn back from its decision,” he said.
Prior to these remarks, Bahçeli also said that the boards to be set up to monitor and manage the peace process should begin their work, including the body that is expected to include jailed PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan.
“The Politicization Coordinatorship is the right of the individual in İmralı. Accepting his valuable statements of Feb. 27, 2026, on [abandoning] political violence, we as a society must, with full support, ensure that the Turkish Republic would continue this policy,” he said.
ÖCALAN MEETS FAMILY, SENDS MESSAGE TO EUROPE
Öcalan himself was visited by family members on the prison island of İmralı and also addressed the European Union in a message he sent to a Kurdish conference in Brussels on Oct. 9.
He said Europe had been unaware of the conspiracies and schemes surrounding his capture in 1999 and urged the EU to abide by its own laws this time.
“The European Union, which displayed this approach at that time, must today act in accordance with its own law. It is of great importance that it be constructive both for Turkey’s democratization and for the resolution of the Kurdish question. The main way to fight the rising far right and authoritarian tendencies in Europe is to properly uphold democratic values,” he said.
The process in Turkey could also serve as a model for peace, stability and democratization across the Middle East, Öcalan said.
HOZAT: ‘NOT A SINGLE GUERRILLA LEFT IN TURKEY’
Bese Hozat, co-chair of the PKK umbrella organization KCK, gave an interview to the recently blocked news website T24.
The group’s weapons were sent for the self-defense of Kurds elsewhere in the region, since they are still under threat, she said.
“There is not a single guerrilla in Turkey right now. But Turkey had been making this an issue for a long time. At this point, there are no combat tunnels or positions left anywhere near the Turkish border,” Hozat told T24’s Tuğçe Tatari.
She questioned whether Bahçeli’s words would be matched by action.
“If what Devlet Bahçeli says does not turn into a concrete policy, a step, this is a serious problem. It then creates doubt and concern about Bahçeli as well. People are asking whether Bahçeli, too, is part of this policy of stalling, of playing for time,” she said.
Hozat also pointed to jailed DEM Party politicians. “While so many politicians from Turkey’s third-largest party are in prison, what is the guerrilla supposed to trust to lay down arms and go do democratic politics in Turkey? This is not logical; it simply does not make sense.”
She also confirmed a channel of communication with the state. “There is a channel, a mechanism, between us and the state. Meetings take place from time to time, and various talks are held.” Hozat said.
