ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Tuesday received Ibrahim Kalin, head of Turkey’s national intelligence and his accompanying delegation, ahead of a planned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) disarmament ceremony in Sulaimani.
Kalin and his accompanying delegates reaffirmed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s desire to strengthen bilateral neighborly ties.
"The meeting discussed joint security issues and mutual information coordination between the two countries, intending to enhance stability in the shared border areas and the region as a whole,” read a statement by Prime Minister Sudani’s media office.
Kalin’s visit to Baghdad comes as the PKK is set to begin handing over their weapons on Thursday, corresponding to July 10th, in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani, with the symbolic first disarmament ceremony following a historic call in February for the militant group to self-dissolve by its imprisoned founder Abdullah Ocalan.
“From July 10 to 12, 25 to 30 PKK fighters in an area of Sulaimani, in a special ceremony, are set to gather weapons, military equipment, and electronic devices, as a sign of serious intention to make the peace process in Turkey,” MP Mehmet Kamac of Turkey's pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) told The New Region earlier this week.
The disarmed PKK fighters will then be allowed to return to their hideouts in the Qandil mountains. According to a statement from Erdogan. "All PKK military equipment will be destroyed and will not fall into the hands of any security forces,” the statement read.
The PKK announced the historic decision to disband following the militant group's 12th Congress in early May, which heeded Ocalan's call for disarmament and brought an end to a multi-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state.
Long designated a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies, the PKK has been an armed group fighting for increased Kurdish rights in Turkey for decades, predominantly engaging in armed conflict with Turkish forces from the mountainous borders of the Kurdish Region in Iraq and Syria.
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