Turkey MPs back historic law on reintegrating Kurdish militants

Turkish lawmakers on Monday voted through a bill offering limited amnesty for Kurdish PKK militants, a key step in the peace process that seeks to end decades of deadly violence. 

The law is Turkey's first legislative step towards ending the conflict and comes 18 months after Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), urged his followers to disarm.

After 12 hours of debate, lawmakers voted by 468 in favour to 88 against, with six abstentions, for the so-called "terror-free Turkey law" which envisages a return to civilian life for some of the PKK fighters who lay down their weapons without granting a total amnesty.

But crucially, the text does not specify what will become of Ocalan, 77, who has spent the past 27 years being held in solitary confinement on Imrali prison island near Istanbul.

Ocalan has played a key role in efforts to end the conflict, issuing a historic call in February 2025 for his fighters to disarm and embrace democratic means to defend the rights of Turkey's Kurdish minority.

Backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the pro-Kurdish DEM party, the bill suspends prosecutions and prison sentences for some offences for between five and 10 years.

The move is expected to involve the release of around 3,500 PKK-linked detainees in an initial phase, lawmakers said -- around a third of the number held in Turkish prisons.

If those covered by the measure do not reoffend during that period, investigations would be dropped and sentences considered served.

But those involved in serious crimes such as murder would be excluded -- with the text making no mention of Ocalan.

Last week, Turkey's vice president Cevdet Yilmaz told CNN Turk Ocalan's case "does not fall within the scope of this law" but said he would be "in a position to contribute to the peace process" without giving further details.

Following the vote, Yilmaz hailed the new law as a "historic step", saying "the 468 'yes' votes are of the utmost importance in terms of political consensus".

"We expect the disarmament and dissolution processes to be implemented as quickly as possible.. and subsequently for the relevant articles of the law to come into effect," he wrote on X.

Devlet Bahceli, a close Erdogan ally and head of the hardline nationalist MHP whose unexpected olive branch to Ocalan kickstarted the process in October 2024, also hailed the vote.

"May it bring good luck and success," he said, shaking hands with pro-Kurdish MPs from DEM -- which also played a key role in the process, with its lawmakers regularly visiting Ocalan on Imrali island to pass messages back and forth.

With the vote, Turkey was "crossing a historic threshold", DEM MP Ceylan Akca told AFP.

"This is the first step of a long walk towards absolute and authentic equality. I choose to be optimistic," she said, admitting the vote had made her "more hopeful."

Ahead of the vote, the government had been keen to stress that the text was not a general amnesty law, aware of the misgivings of the Turkish public which has been scarred by decades of bloody conflict.

And the tension was evident as lawmakers held a heated debate in a session broadcast live on TRT public television.

"How can you negotiate with terrorists? ... You said they would be laying down their weapons unconditionally," said Turhan Comez, a lawmaker with the nationalist opposition Iyi party.

In May last year, the PKK announced it was disbanding following Ocalan's call and two months later, its militants took part in a historic disarmament ceremony in the mountains of northern Iraq where they began symbolically destroying their weapons.

But the PKK leadership has said excluding Ocalan from the legislation would be a red line, warning on Sunday that many of the bill's provisions would remain a "dead letter" if he were not freed.