Turkey’s Erdogan signs conditional pardon for PKK militants

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signed into law a measure that offers a conditional pardon to thousands of Kurdish militants, part of a broader government effort to end a decades-long conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The legislation, published in the Official Gazette on Tuesday, will only take effect after Turkey’s National Security Council confirms that the PKK has fully dissolved and disarmed. Parliament approved the bill overwhelmingly last week.

Under the new law, certain prison sentences for convicted PKK members would be suspended, and ongoing investigations and trials against others could be postponed for five or ten years, depending on the severity of the crime. If the individuals do not re-offend during those periods, the cases would be dropped.

The legislation also sets up a committee to oversee the group’s disarmament, with its first meeting expected next week.

The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, announced last year that it would disband, following a call from its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan. Ocalan and other senior PKK figures are excluded from the pardon.

Shortly after the announcement, some fighters laid down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq, where the group is based, and withdrew from key locations in Turkey to Iraq.

The conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which began in the 1980s, has killed tens of thousands of people.