Turkish panel tasked with advancing peace with PKK holds first meeting

ANKARA, Turkey — A newly formed Turkish parliamentary committee tasked with overseeing a peace initiative with a Kurdish militant group holds its inaugural meeting, marking a further significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency.

The 51-member committee, comprised of legislators from most major parties, has been charged with proposing and supervising legal and political reforms aimed at advancing the peace process, following the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK’s, decision to disband and lay down arms.

Fighters from the group began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq last month, the first concrete step toward disarmament.

In his opening remarks, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus calls the committee’s launch a “historic turning point.”

“The commission gathered here is no ordinary delegation; it is a historic one, demonstrating the courage to repair our future and the will to strengthen social integration,” he says.

“In this hall, we are witnessing the beginning of a new era, representing the will of the nation,” he says, before the proceedings were closed to journalists.

The committee is expected to decide on how to proceed and to select an official name.