The initiative to end terrorism in Türkiye will create new opportunities to elevate democratic and developmental standards, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said Friday.
In a landmark development, the PKK terrorist group earlier this month announced its dissolution and the end of its four-decade terror campaign that cost tens of thousands of lives in Türkiye, as well as in Iraq and Syria.
"'A Türkiye without terror' is very valuable in terms of democracy and development because we all know that terror causes great harm to democracy and development,” Yılmaz told Turkish broadcast Tvnet in an interview.
“An environment where terror is eliminated will also provide us with a new atmosphere and opportunity to raise our democratic and development standards. This will contribute greatly to Türkiye's growth and becoming a strong country.”
Regarding the PKK’s decision to disarm and disband, the most important issue is the implementation of this decision in the field, he said.
The vice president assured that mechanisms have been established within this framework.
“These are not easy processes, but Türkiye is a very experienced country in these matters,” he said, citing an extensive field network of intelligence units, foreign missions and security forces contributing to counterterrorism.
“Developments in the field will be carefully monitored and reported, and the developments here will carry Türkiye into a new environment,” he said.
The initiative was launched by government ally Devlet Bahçeli, head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who called on the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan to appeal to the group to lay down arms in a historic speech last year.
Soon, his call evolved into a new initiative that saw People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmakers visiting Öcalan in the island prison where he is incarcerated in the Marmara Sea. As Öcalan warmed up to the idea, Türkiye moved to the next stage in the initiative, with the PKK convening a "congress."
Media outlets reported earlier this month that PKK members will hand over their weapons within the next four months, and some 3,500 terrorists will leave their hideouts in Iraq’s north.
Turkish authorities continue to discuss the next steps in the process, including with their Syrian interlocutors, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Türkiye expects the PKK’s dissolution to include all affiliated groups, including extensions in Iraq and specifically its Syrian offshoot, the YPG.
The YPG is located largely around oil-rich regions of northern Syria and is backed by the United States under the guise of driving out Daesh remnants. Initially opposed to Öcalan’s call to disband, the YPG in March signed a deal with Damascus to disband and join Syria’s new state institutions.
Implementation is due by the end of the year, but it was unclear how the YPG’s armed operation would be integrated.
Ankara has insisted that the YPG take immediate steps to fulfill the March deal, stressing the need for a “comprehensive government, a single legitimate armed force” for stability in Syria.
