Turkey's parliament approved a framework law on Monday offering conditional rehabilitation for thousands of Kurdistan Workers' Party fighters, passing the measure 468 to 88 with support from both the ruling AKP and the pro-Kurdish DEM party. Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz called it a "historic step".
The law, which takes effect only after the National Security Council confirms the PKK has disarmed, is expected to release roughly 3,500 prisoners and suspend ongoing investigations for five to ten years depending on offence severity. Concessions exclude militants involved in international killings and those sentenced to life before 2005.
Jailed PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan expressed confidence in the legislation during a meeting last week with a DEM delegation on İmralı island, where he has been held in isolation since 1999. Öcalan, 77, called on the PKK to dissolve in February 2025, and commanders began symbolically destroying weapons in northern Iraq that July.