Turkey's Grand National Assembly passed a law on Monday, 10 August 2026, that establishes a legal framework for disbanding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) — approved with 468 votes in the 600-seat chamber.

The legislation, backed by President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, its nationalist MHP allies and the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, creates the legal machinery for winding down an insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people since 1984.

What does the new law actually do?

The statute operates on two fronts.

• It provides legal protections for many former militants who have not committed specific crimes.
• It facilitates the suspension of prison sentences for some individuals convicted of PKK membership, opening a path to reintegration into society.

The measure answers one of the central questions hanging over the peace process: what happens to thousands of PKK members as the group dismantles its military and organisational structures.

How did the vote break down?

The law cleared the 600-seat parliament with 468 votes — an unusually broad consensus spanning the governing AKP-MHP coalition and the pro-Kurdish DEM Party.

It marks the most concrete step Ankara has taken since jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan called on the group in February 2025 to disarm and disband. The PKK announced in May 2025 that it would end its armed struggle and break up. Two months later, a group of militants symbolically burned their weapons at a ceremony in northern Iraq.

The government has framed the initiative as part of its stated goal of creating a "terror-free Turkey". Kurdish politicians have countered that lasting peace will require broader democratic and legal reforms.

What is the timeline behind the process?

The path to Monday's vote runs through several distinct milestones:

• October 2024 — MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, long known for his hardline stance against Kurdish militancy, unexpectedly suggested Ocalan could address parliament and announce the PKK's dissolution.
• February 2025 — Ocalan, imprisoned on Imrali island since 1999, called on the PKK to disarm and disband.
• May 2025 — The PKK announced it would end its armed struggle and break up.
• July 2025 — Militants symbolically burned weapons at a ceremony in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq, on 26 October 2025 holding a disarmament ceremony there.
• August 2025 — Parliament established a commission that heard politicians, officials and civil society groups before recommending legislation to manage disarmament and reintegration.
• 10 August 2026 — The Grand National Assembly passed the disbandment framework into law.

What does the law leave unresolved?

The statute does not, by itself, resolve the broader Kurdish demands that shadow the process.

Three issues remain open:

• Expanded political and cultural rights for Kurds.
• Changes to Turkey's anti-terrorism legislation.
• The status of Abdullah Ocalan, jailed on Imrali island since 1999.

The PKK is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. The conflict, launched in 1984, has imposed a heavy economic burden on the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey and fuelled decades of political and social division.

What is the practical consequence for practitioners?

For criminal defence lawyers and prosecutors in Turkey, the immediate effect will land in sentencing. Courts will now have a statutory basis to suspend prison terms for certain PKK-membership convictions, and counsel representing former militants without specific criminal charges can invoke the new legal protections on their clients' behalf. The law creates a differentiated regime: individuals tied to identifiable crimes fall outside its protective scope, while those convicted solely of membership may see sentences suspended and reintegration pathways open. Practitioners handling terrorism-related caseloads should expect a wave of applications testing the law's boundaries — including who qualifies as having "not committed specific crimes" — and continued uncertainty over the unresolved anti-terrorism framework that the statute deliberately leaves untouched.