ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s parliamentary justice committee on Saturday approved a bill providing a legal framework for the next stage of the country’s Kurdish peace process, including the suspension of prosecutions and sentences for certain crimes allegedly linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), provided the group fully disarms and dissolves.
The bill, entitled 'Draft Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Integration,' prepared jointly by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), was submitted to the presidency of the Turkish parliament on Wednesday.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) also signed the proposal, marking the first time legislation addressing the resolution of the Kurdish decades-long issue has entered the parliamentary process with the signatures of all four major parties, according to the Turkish Parliament.
The legislation is part of the government’s “Turkey Without Terror” process and would take effect after a National Security Council decision confirming that the PKK and all affiliated organizations have ended their physical existence and surrendered their weapons and ammunition, as verified by security institutions.
The proposal, which outlines a legal framework for the return of PKK fighters and civilians from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, details their proceedings and adjudication through the justice system and reintegration into society.
According to the parliament, the bill aims to regulate the “postponement of investigations, prosecutions, and the execution of convictions” involving certain PKK-related crimes.
Under the proposal, prosecutions for covered offenses could be postponed for five years if the maximum sentence is 15 years or less, and for 10 years for more serious offenses, including life imprisonment. The bill covers crimes such as PKK membership, leadership, knowingly aiding the organization and propaganda. Intentional murder committed as part of organizational activity is excluded.
The proposal also establishes a government board to oversee the process and sets rules for recording weapons and other materials surrendered by PKK members.
The bill comes amid joint efforts by Turkish and Kurdish parties to enact a legal framework for disarmament and the social reintegration of former militants who led armed struggles against Turkey in the last several decades.
The legislation follows increasingly visible calls from MHP leader Devlet Bahceli who on Wednesday called for the release of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and former Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtas.
"This historic step we have taken is the strongest guarantee of social reconciliation and national unity," Bahceli told Millet News Agency on Wednesday, hoping that the "signature we have placed brings goodness and blessings. Our thousand-year-old brotherhood has been reaffirmed once again. In this process, 86 million people will be winners," he said.
The process began to take clearer shape after Bahceli’s October 2024 handshake with DEM Party lawmakers in parliament, followed by meetings between a DEM delegation and Ocalan.
On February 27, 2025, Ocalan issued a call for the PKK to disarm and dissolve, after which the group announced a ceasefire. On July 11, 2025, a group of 30 PKK fighters symbolically burned their weapons at a ceremony near Sulaimani in the Kurdistan Region.
If Ankara proceeds with the bill and grants the process legal status, it would mark the government's first visible contribution to a process aimed at ending more than four decades of armed conflict that has claimed over 40,000 lives.
