By Hyacinth Estrada
Turkey has marked a historic point in its decades-long fight against terrorism with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) taking its first official step toward disarmament, offering hope for a peaceful future in a nation that has long been plagued by conflict and power struggles.
On Friday, 30 PKK members symbolically burned their weapons in Iraq, signifying the start of the end of the four-decade conflict between the armed organisation and the Turkish government.
Buildings across the nation were donned in red and white – the colours of Turkey’s national flag – as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the PKK’s move as a gateway to a “strong Turkey”.
“Turkey has won. Eighty-six million citizens have won… We know what we are doing,” local daily newspaper Hürriyet quoted Erdogan as saying during a meeting in Ankara.
“We are doing all this for Turkey, for our future.”
Hope remains for missing children
Members of the Diyarbakir Mothers organisation, who have been protesting against the PKK’s recruitment of young people since 2019, expressed their hope that the move will lead to the return of their children.
“We hope all our children [who joined PKK] will abandon their arms and burn them,” Bedriye Uslu, whose son got recruited to PKK 14 years ago, told the Daily Sabah in a phone interview.
“We hope the tears of parents will end and everyone will be reunited with their children,” she said.
The disarmament also rekindles hope for economic recovery for Diyarbakir, a city that has long been stigmatised by violence.
“We will have more business, but more importantly, future generations will live in peace. I hope it will be good for the entire Turkey,” Ugur Altinar, a shopkeeper in Sur district, told Ihlas News Agency (IHA).
Experts, however, warn that the process is just beginning.
“It is too early to say that everything’s over after the first PKK group started abandoning arms. People should be well informed about this historic day,” Mahmut Simsek, head of the NGO Social Consensus, told IHA.
“It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure social consensus and peace; every politician, every opinion leader has a responsibility to use this historic opportunity.”
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