ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Saturday “a new day” in Turkey’s history, a day after PKK fighters laid down arms in a historic disarmament ceremony in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani.

 

In a historical move, 30 PKK fighters, including four commanders, destroyed and burned their weapons near Jasana Cave in Sulaimani province’s Dukan district on Friday, nearly five months after the group’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan called for the faction to disarm and dissolve. 

 

"Today is a new day; a new page has been opened in history. Today, the doors of a great and powerful Turkey, of the Century of Turkey, have opened,” Erdogan said, adding a parliamentary commission will be formed as a "first step" to oversee the ongoing Ankara-PKK peace process, a similar call that Ocalan made in a video message published on Wednesday.

 

"As of yesterday, the 47-year scourge of terrorism has, God willing, entered the process of ending,” Erdogan told members of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara.

 

"We are closely following every initiative that will stop the bloodshed, ease the tears of mothers, reduce suffering, and strengthen brotherhood," Erdogan

 

The PKK announced its historic decision to disband following its 12th Congress in early May, which responded to Ocalan's call for disarmament and ended a multi-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state.

 

"I am clearly stating that the Terror-Free Turkey project we have been pursuing recently is not the result of negotiations, a bargain, or a give-and-take process.  Everyone should be assured of this: We will never allow the honor of the Republic of Turkey to be violated, nor will we allow it to bow its head. We are pursuing our Terror-Free Turkey project with this understanding.”

 

“Thank you,” Erdogan told the Iraqi government, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Turkey’s MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, and the pro-Kurdish DEM Party for their roles in the Ankara-PKK peace process.