Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Wednesday that his government is preparing a legal framework to accelerate the process of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) laying down its arms, adding that the proposal would be submitted to parliament “without delay.”
Speaking to lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in parliament, Erdoğan said the process, which the government calls “a terrorism-free Turkey,” had passed what he described as serious tests despite attempts at sabotage.
“We are working on a legal framework that will speed up the organization’s process of liquidation,” Erdoğan said.
“As the People’s Alliance, with the support of our parliament, we will hopefully complete this auspicious process and leave a record in history that we will remember with pride.”
The People’s Alliance is made up of Erdoğan’s AKP and its far-right ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
Erdoğan’s comments concern a renewed peace initiative launched after MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli urged jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in October 2024 to call for an end to violence. Öcalan issued such a call in February 2025, and the PKK later announced it would lay down its arms and dissolve itself.
Turkey subsequently established a cross-party parliamentary commission tasked with preparing a legal framework for the process, but the body has yet to produce concrete proposals addressing longstanding Kurdish demands, including recognition of Kurdish identity in the constitution and mother-tongue education.
The PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 40,000 lives.
Erdoğan did not elaborate on what the legal measures would include, but his remarks came a day after pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları urged parliament to act quickly, saying goodwill statements were no longer enough and that a framework law should be adopted before the current legislative term ends.
Speaking at her party’s parliamentary group meeting, Hatimoğulları said Turkey was at the heart of global turmoil, regional conflicts and energy corridor tensions, adding that the country’s response should be “social peace, economic justice, democracy and the rule of law.”
“At a time when the world is on the brink of a third world war and the region is going through a great storm, the pursuit of peace and democracy cannot be underestimated,” Hatimoğulları said, according to the DHA news agency.
“In such an atmosphere, what Turkey must do is not become an extension of regional wars but become a founding force of democratic peace.”
Hatimoğulları said people were asking why parliament had not yet taken concrete steps to create the legal basis for the process.
“Goodwill statements can no longer carry this process,” she said. “The framework law must urgently be passed.”
She welcomed recent remarks by AKP spokesman Ömer Çelik, who said the process had reached the stage of a legal framework, and by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, who said the proposal would be brought to parliament as soon as possible.
“Our expectation is clear: This period must not go beyond July,” Hatimoğulları said.
“The framework law must come before parliament before this legislative term ends. Approaches such as ‘We could not get it done, it would not matter if it is left to the next term’ are unacceptable.”
According to Turkish media reports, AKP and MHP officials are discussing the possibility of submitting the proposal to the speaker’s office after the NATO summit scheduled to be held in Ankara on July 7-8, with the aim of passing it before parliament goes into summer recess.
The draft is expected to include 10 or 11 articles and to take effect only after authorities confirm that the PKK has laid down its arms.
AKP officials have reportedly discussed submitting the bill under a title that would refer to the PKK/KCK’s laying of down arms, although the final wording has not yet been announced.
The KCK is the Kurdistan Communities Union, the umbrella organization that encompasses the PKK.
AKP officials have said the planned legislation would not amount to a general amnesty.
Çelik said earlier this week that the government had reached the stage of assessing a legal framework that would come into force depending on the PKK laying down its arms.
It is not known whether this new process will succeed this time since another attempt launched in 2013 collapsed two years later, sparking renewed clashes between the PKK and the Turkish armed forces.