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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An initial group of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters is set to disarm in a Sulaimani province ceremony within a week, according to well-informed sources, who said the main reason for picking Sulaimani was 'security.'
A group of PKK fighters will disarm in early July in Sulaimani's Raparin administration, launching the practical steps of implementing the group's decision to dissolve and end its armed struggle against the Turkish state.
The PKK announced its dissolution in May, in response to a February call by its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan to end the conflict that has claimed around 40,000 lives and pursue a political path to securing Kurdish political and cultural rights.
Rudaw has learned from three well-informed sources that previous discussions were held between Ankara and the PKK regarding the location of the first disarmament ceremony, and while Turkey had preferred Erbil province to be the site, the PKK rejected the request after several internal meetings.
Turkey eventually approved the request after deliberations.
'What the PKK is doing is a gesture of goodwill for peace, and the choice of the disarmament ceremony's location was purely a consideration of the security situation,' a source said.
Kamaran Osman, a member of the Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a US-based human rights organization monitoring Ankara's operations in the Kurdistan Region, told Rudaw on Sunday that Sulaimani, where the PKK's headquarters is located in the Qandil Mountains, 'has not been bombarded by Turkey since the PKK's declaration of a ceasefire.'
Turkey in May did not carry out any attacks in Sulaimani and Erbil, but its attacks in Duhok continued, according to CPT statistics, but Ankara bombarded Erbil nine times in June.
The complete lack of attacks in Sulaimani is seen as key to the PKK's decision to hold its first disarmament ceremony in the province.
'Due to the peace process and the calmness of the situation, the movement of [PKK] guerrillas in various parts of Sulaimani province has returned to normal. The situation has reverted to how it was before 2018,' a well-informed source in Sulaimani told Rudaw on Sunday.
While Turkey has welcomed the PKK's decision to dissolve and end its armed struggle, it has emphasized the need for taking concrete steps towards total disarmament. Meanwhile, the PKK expects Ankara to introduce democratic reforms.
At the disarmament ceremony in Sulaimani, PKK fighters will destroy their weapons rather than hand them over to any other authority, Rudaw has learned.
A delegation from Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) will also attend the ceremony. The DEM Party is mediating peace talks between the PKK and the Turkish state.
Founded in 1978, the PKK initially sought an independent Kurdish state but later shifted its focus toward achieving broader political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. The group has been labeled a terrorist organization by Ankara and its allies.
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