Turkey Passes Conditional Pardon Bill for PKK Fighters

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's parliament on Monday approved legislation creating a conditional pardon for thousands of Kurdish militants, a step meant to advance the government's peace initiative with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Legislators voted 468-88 in favor of the measure, which would take effect only after Turkish authorities verify that the PKK has fully disarmed. Turkey's National Security Council must confirm that the group has disbanded and surrendered all weapons; those seeking to benefit would then have six months to apply after the decision is published in the official gazette.

The 12-article law suspends some prison sentences for convicted PKK members and postpones ongoing investigations and trials for five or 10 years, depending on the severity of the alleged offenses. If no terror-related crime is committed in that window, the cases are dropped. Militants convicted of intentional killings and those sentenced to life terms before 2005 are excluded — a carve-out that covers imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and other senior figures. The bill also sets up ministerial and parliamentary committees to monitor disarmament.

The PKK announced last year that it was ending its decades-long armed campaign and dissolving itself, responding to a call from Ocalan. It then held a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq and said it was pulling fighters from key locations in Turkey.

"With the armed organization laying down its arms and dissolving itself, we will build a new era in which peace, brotherhood, and solidarity will prevail," Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus told reporters after the vote.

The PKK-linked ANF news outlet carried a group statement calling the legislation a "beginning" with "serious shortcomings and deficiencies," and demanding Ocalan's release. Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit of the pro-Kurdish DEM party told parliament the country now has "an opportunity to consolidate peace and build democracy," while acknowledging the proposal's gaps. Musavat Dervisoglu, leader of the nationalist Good Party, which opposes the bill, said it "would pave the way" for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stay in power.

The insurgency, waged since 1984, has killed tens of thousands and spilled into Iraq and Syria. The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Previous peace efforts failed, most recently in 2015.