PKK amnesty bill gains broad support in Turkey

Turkey’s government presented a limited amnesty bill for PKK Kurdish militants on Wednesday, in what it described as a first legislative step toward ending decades of fighting.

About 360 deputies in the 592-seat assembly said they would support the bill, including members of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP, his MHP allies and the pro-Kurdish DEM party. The bill must still be reviewed by parliament’s Justice Committee before lawmakers vote on it.

The proposed law would create a mechanism for the return of PKK militants by suspending jail sentences for up to 10 years. If there are no repeat offences during that period, the sentences would be considered served, amounting to a de facto amnesty.

The amnesty would not cover “intentional homicides” or “crimes punishable by life imprisonment committed before June 1, 2005”. A council made up of several ministers and the vice president, together with a parliamentary commission, would oversee implementation.

The proposal does not specify what would happen to Abdullah Ocalan, the 77-year-old founder and longtime leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, who has spent 27 years in solitary confinement on a prison island.

Ocalan has supported an almost two-year-old peace initiative. In May 2025, the PKK dissolved itself and laid down its arms after four decades of armed conflict seeking greater autonomy for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.

“Today, we are turning a new page in Turkey’s political history,” said Tuncer Bakirhan, co-chair of the DEM party. He called the bill “a milestone for peace, democracy, and our shared future”.

The newly formed Yeni Party, the main opposition party, expressed regret that the text had not been shared with it. Under an expedited procedure, the legislative process is expected to be completed by the weekend or early next week.

The peace process began in October 2024 at the initiative of Devlet Bahceli, leader of the nationalist MHP party and an Erdogan ally. Its aim is to end violence between the PKK and the Turkish army that has claimed at least 50,000 lives.