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In a powerful gesture toward peace, 30 Kurdish guerrillas, half of them women, laid down and destroyed their weapons on July 11, 2025, near a guerrilla base in the Federal Region of Kurdistan, Iraq.
30 Kurdish guerrillas, led by Besê Hozat, co-chair of the KCK Executive Council, laid down and destroyed their weapons in a symbolic ceremony near a guerrilla base in Iraq’s Federal Region of Kurdistan. The group, identifying as the Group for Peace and Democratic Society, included 15 women and was witnessed by journalists, human rights organizations, and Kurdish regional officials. The event follows the PKK’s decision to disband its armed struggle, prompted by Abdullah Öcalan’s February 2025 call. A weapons inventory was also handed to the ÖHD, İHD, and HRFT, reinforcing transparency in the peace process.
Statement of the guerillas
“To Our People and the Public;
As the Peace and Democratic Society Group, which was formed to accelerate the process of democratic change and transformation; we respectfully greet everyone who is here and witnessing our historic democratic action.
We, male and female freedom fighters who joined the PKK on different dates, took up arms and fought in different regions in order to fight against the attacks aimed at the denial and destruction of Kurdish existence, have come here today in response to the call of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan in his statement on 19 June 2025. Our arrival is also based on the call for Peace and Democratic Society announced by Leader Abdullah Öcalan on 27 February 2025 and the decisions of the PKK 12th Congress held on 5-7 May. As a step of goodwill and determination for the practical success of the Peace and Democratic Society process, and in order to carry out our struggle for freedom, democracy and socialism from now on through democratic politics and law, and on the basis of the enactment of democratic integration laws, we dispose of our weapons with our free will in your presence.
We wish that this step we have taken will bring peace and freedom to all our people, especially women and youth, to the peoples of Turkey and the Middle East and to all humanity.
We wholeheartedly agree with Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s statement ‘I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons, and I call on you to put this principle into practice’ and we are proud and honoured to be fulfilling this historical principle.
We know that nothing has ever been easy, free and without struggle; on the contrary, everything has been won by paying a heavy price every day and fighting tooth and nail. Of course, the future will also be a tough struggle. We know this reality very well, we believe wholeheartedly in the ideas and paradigm of Leader Abdullah Öcalan and we trust in ourselves and our collective power as a community of comrades in order to achieve new achievements and democratic gains on this basis.
We see and feel the great importance, correctness and urgency of this historical step we have taken in this environment where fascist oppression and exploitation are increasing in the world, our region, the Middle East, has turned into a bloodbath and our people need a free, equal and democratic life in peace more than ever.
We hope that everyone, women and youth, workers and labourers, socialist and democratic forces, all peoples and humanity will see, understand and appreciate the historical value of this step towards peace and democracy.
On this basis, we invite all regional and global powers responsible for the suffering of our people to respect the extremely legitimate and democratic national rights of our people and to support the peace and democratic solution process.
We call on all peoples, especially women and youth, workers and labourers, democratic and socialist forces, intellectuals, writers, academics, lawyers, artists and politicians to understand this historic step we have taken correctly and to show solidarity with us and our people. We also call on them to fight more actively for the physical freedom of Leader Abdullah Öcalan and for the democratic political solution of the Kurdish question, and to develop and strengthen the democratic, socialist international struggle and solidarity at the global level
We call on our people and all political forces to understand the characteristics of the historical process we are going through and the Peace and Democratic Society process developed by Leader Apo, to successfully fulfil their educational, organisational and actional duties in every field and to develop democratic life.
Oppression and exploitation will end, freedom and solidarity will win.
The Peace and Democratic Society process will definitely succeed.
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