The peace process which aims to put an end to more than 40 years of Kurdish guerrilla warfare in Türkiye has just reached a new stage. The Turkish Parliament adopted on Monday a historic law which regulates the return to civilian life of PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) fighters. This organization was originally a secessionist movement waging war against Turkish power to create an independent Kurdish state in territory including southeastern Turkey.
In February 2025, PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan publicly called on fighters to lay down their arms. The 77-year-old Kurdish leader, sentenced to life in prison and held in solitary confinement since 1999 on an island off the coast of Istanbul, explained that the armed struggle was a thing of the past and that the rights of the Kurds must now be obtained through political means. The PKK announced its dissolution three months later. The law, passed by a very large majority of 468 deputies out of 600, should lead to the release of 3,500 ex-members of the guerrillas out of the 10,000 detained in Turkish prisons. The text does not provide for a general amnesty and only concerns prisoners who are not accused of serious crimes.
Ocalan’s fate remains to be resolved
“It’s an important step but not all the obstacles have been removed,” comments Didier Billion, deputy director of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris). “There is a paradox with the prospect of PKK fighters returning to civilian life while at the same time Kurdish elected officials who have never been involved in armed struggle remain in prison,” adds this Turkey specialist. The law also does not apply to the historic leader of the PKK whose fate remains to be resolved.
The destabilization of the Middle East caused by the American-Israeli war against Iran is not unrelated to this acceleration of the peace process. The reintegration of ex-PKK fighters into civilian life aims to give the image of a united and strengthened Türkiye in the face of unrest in the region.
“No progress at the political or cultural level”
PKK members remain divided on the process which should lead to the end of the Kurdish guerrilla war. Former separatists deplore that the deputies did not look into the discrimination suffered by the Kurdish minority, which represents around 20% of the population in Türkiye. The identity of the nearly 20 million Turkish Kurds has long been denied and the Kurdish language banned. “We are far from the recognition of Kurdish as an official language. There is also no question of the requirement for decentralization, which would allow the Kurdish regions to have more autonomy. There is no progress at the political or cultural level,” notes Didier Billion. “The rule of law and civil liberties are in a poor state in Türkiye. The necessary political overhaul cannot be achieved by avoiding the Kurdish question. »
In France, Kurds still represent the majority of asylum requests from Turkish nationals. “They fear being persecuted because of their ethnic origins, their conscientious objection or their political opinions,” underlines the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons in its 2025 report.
