ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that peace efforts with Kurds would gain momentum after PKK militants begin laying down their weapons.
His remarks came ahead of a planned ceremony by the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan to begin destroying its weapons, which the group said could happen between July 10 and 12.
“The process will gain a little more speed when the terrorist organisation starts to implement its decision to lay down arms,“ he told journalists on his way back from an economic summit in Azerbaijan in remarks reported Saturday by Anadolu state news agency.
The PKK declared an end to its armed campaign in May -- a conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives since 1984 and long strained Turkey's relations with its Kurdish population and regional neighbours.
“As a gesture of goodwill, a number of PKK fighters, who had taken part in fighting Turkish forces in recent years, will destroy or burn their weapons in a ceremony,“ a PKK commander told AFP on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But the group has accused Ankara of dragging its feet in reciprocating, with one of its founders Mustafa Karasu saying the government “has not taken the needed steps”, pointing to ongoing strikes on PKK positions in northern Irak and the failure to improve the conditions of PKK’s founder Abdullah Ocalan who has been serving life on a prison island near Istanbul and who led the call to disarm.
