Turkey Drafts Law to Allow PKK Members and Civilians to Return Home

ARK News.. An international news agency has revealed that Turkey has begun drafting a new law that would allow thousands of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members and civilians to return home from their strongholds in the mountains of the Kurdistan Region, as part of ongoing negotiations aimed at ending the decades-long conflict.

According to Reuters, citing a senior Middle Eastern official and a source within a Kurdish political party in Turkey, the proposed legislation would guarantee protection for returnees but would not include a general amnesty for crimes committed by former fighters. Some senior PKK figures may instead be relocated to third countries as part of a broader reconciliation plan.

The source added that the draft law, which envisions the return of both fighters and civilians in separate stages, could be submitted to the Turkish parliament later this month.

The PKK officially abandoned its armed struggle against the Turkish state in May 2025, marking the end of four decades of conflict that claimed nearly 50,000 lives on both sides.

Last month, the group announced the withdrawal of its remaining fighters from Turkey to the Qandil Mountains in the Kurdistan Region, completing the first phase of the peace process launched a year ago.

The Party for Equality and Peoples’ Democracy — the third-largest bloc in the Turkish parliament — has called for the start of the second phase, “which involves the legal and political steps.”

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