Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Turkey’s parliament on Monday approved a law that would offer a conditional pardon to thousands of Kurdish militants, in a move aimed at pushing forward the government’s peace initiative with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. The measure was passed by 468 votes to 88 and will take effect only after Turkish authorities verify that the group has fully disarmed.
The legislation is a significant step in efforts to end a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people over the decades. It could also have wider regional effects, including closer ties between Turkey and Iraq, while also intersecting with political calculations at home and developments in Syria.
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The PKK announced last year that it was ending its decades-long armed campaign against the Turkish state and dissolving itself as part of the peace effort, after a call from its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan. The group later held a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq, where it is based, and said it was withdrawing fighters from key locations in Turkey to Iraq.
The 12-article law sets out the process for disarmament and the rehabilitation of thousands of PKK members. It will suspend some prison sentences for convicted PKK members and delay ongoing investigations and trials against others for five or 10 years, depending on the seriousness of the alleged offences. If no terror-related crime is committed during that period, the cases will be dropped. Militants convicted of intentional killings and those given life sentences before 2005 are excluded from the bill, including Ocalan and other senior PKK figures. The proposal also creates ministerial and parliamentary committees to monitor the process. The measures will come into force only after Turkey’s National Security Council confirms that the group has disbanded and handed over all weapons. Those seeking to benefit from the law will have six months to apply after the council’s decision is published in the official gazette. Media reports said exiled PKK members and those in Iraq and Syria are expected to benefit.
The measure could also affect politics beyond the disarmament process. It may help Turkey improve ties with Iraq and could support the Syrian government’s efforts to integrate areas once controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which is affiliated with the PKK. It also gives President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a chance to seek the backing of the pro-Kurdish DEM party if he wants to stay in office beyond the two-term presidential limit. Erdogan could run again if parliament calls an early election during his current term.
The PKK, however, said the law does not go far enough. In a statement carried by the PKK-linked ANF news outlet, the group said the legislation is a “beginning” to resolving the pending issues but has “serious shortcomings and deficiencies”. It called for Ocalan’s release, saying the peace process can move forward only if he “lives and works freely”. The group also said its fighters would not surrender their weapons and return to Turkey “if, upon returning to Turkey, they are unable to engage in democratic politics on the basis of freedom of thought and freedom of association, and if they are prosecuted and imprisoned because of their views or the organizations they establish.”
Speaking in parliament, Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, said: “The people of Turkey, who have paid a heavy price for many years, now have an opportunity to consolidate peace and build democracy.” She added: “Of course, the proposal has shortcomings, and we now have a responsibility to address these shortcomings,” in an apparent reference to demands for greater rights for Kurds and democratic reforms. Musavat Dervisoglu, the leader of the centre-right nationalist Good Party, which opposes the bill, said it “would pave the way” for Erdogan to stay in power.
DEM has been lobbying for Ocalan, who has been in prison since 1999, to be given official status to help coordinate the transition process, which could have led to his release. The current proposal, however, makes no mention of his status or possible release. Media reports have suggested that conditions for Ocalan in his island prison off Istanbul may be eased, with wider visiting rights and greater communication with the outside world.
The PKK has been waging an armed insurgency since 1984, a conflict that has spread into Iraq and Syria and left tens of thousands dead. Turkey, the United States and the European Union designate it as a terrorist organisation. The group had initially sought an independent Kurdish state, but later shifted to demands for autonomy and wider rights in Turkey. With earlier peace efforts, most recently in 2015, having failed, the new law sets out Turkey’s latest attempt to turn the PKK’s announced disarmament into a formal peace process.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
