The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) commenced practical efforts to disarm on Friday, July 11th. The official handover process follows an earlier announcement, with major implications for the region.
At least four neighbouring countries are home to significant Kurdish minorities, making claims for a Kurdish homeland a complex geopolitical question in West Asia, the Middle East and the Levant.
The main focus of the ceremony in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, was to signal the end of the armed struggle led by the PKK against the Turkish state. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government classifies the PKK as a terror group, is set to make a formal response to the PKK’s initiative on Saturday, July 12th.
