History in Turkey: Law granting amnesty to Kurdish underground members approved

The Turkish parliament approved by a majority of 467 votes the law to strengthen national solidarity, which grants amnesty to PKK activists for merely joining the organization, provided they lay down their arms. The fighters will be able to return to their homes. The law does not apply to the organization's leadership or to Öcalan, and has drawn criticism from the PKK.

The Turkish parliament approved this evening (Wednesday) by a majority of 467 votes (out of 600) the "Law to Strengthen National Solidarity and Social Cohesion," which grants amnesty to all PKK activists for merely joining the organization. The fighters will receive amnesty on condition that they lay down their arms, allowing thousands of Kurdish guerrilla fighters to return to their homes in Turkey. Most of the fighters left for the mountains, mainly across the border with Iraq. The law is the culmination of a process that began about two years ago, with an initiative that came surprisingly from Turkey's far-right leader Devlet Bahçeli, was adopted by President Erdoğan under the banner "Turkey Without Terror," and received the blessing of the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. The law aims to end the bloody conflict between the Turkish Republic and the Kurds, which since the founding of the PKK in the 1980s has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people in Turkey and neighboring countries, and to convert the armed Kurdish struggle into a struggle using democratic means. The law passed overnight does not grant amnesty to the organization's leadership, located in the Qandil Mountains in Iraq, nor to the imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan, and does not include explicit reference to Kurds, and therefore drew criticism from the PKK itself, but received support from Öcalan from his prison cell.