Turkey's Grand National Assembly approved legislation late on Aug. 10, 2026, allowing legal proceedings and sentences in cases involving the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to be suspended for five or 10 years. The bill, titled "Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Integration," passed with 467 votes in favor, 87 against and seven abstentions after about 12 hours of debate. It marks the first legislative step in the Kurdish peace initiative that began in 2024.

The law's provisions will take effect only on condition that the National Security Council (MGK) confirms the PKK has laid down its arms. Once that confirmation is complete, the state may declare the PKK a "dissolved organization" and remove its designation as a "terrorist organization."

The law covers the offenses of founding, leading or being a member of the PKK, knowingly assisting the group without being a member, committing offenses as part of its activities, disseminating its propaganda and financing it.

It excludes "intentional killings" committed as part of PKK activities, as well as offenses carrying an aggravated life sentence committed before June 1, 2005. The group's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, and many others therefore fall outside the law's scope.

For practitioners, the practical consequence is significant but conditional. Defense counsel representing PKK-linked defendants can now anticipate suspension of prosecutions and sentences within the covered offense categories, but the clock does not start until the MGK issues its confirmation report, which must then be published in the Official Gazette for the law to enter into force. Cases involving pre-2005 aggravated life sentences and intentional killings remain outside the suspension regime and will continue through the ordinary criminal process.

Vote breakdown

Deputies from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) cast 258 votes in favor, while its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), contributed 44. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party cast 55 votes in favor, the New Path (Yeni Yol) Party 16 and the Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP) three.

The Republican People's Party (CHP) cast 29 votes in favor and two against. All 29 lawmakers from the nationalist Good (İYİ) Party who took part opposed the bill. Deputies from the main opposition New (Yeni) Party, a splinter group from the CHP, cast 35 votes in favor and 54 against; the party leadership said before the vote that its MPs were free to decide. Parliament went into recess following the vote and will reconvene on Oct. 1.

DEM urges swift implementation

DEM Party co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları said her party supported the law as a first step and called for its swift implementation.

"We see this law as establishing a framework and as a first step toward achieving peace in these lands in the period ahead. That is why we supported it," she said. "For the law to be implemented, it is just as important and vital as its passage that the National Security Council (MGK) prepare its report and publish it in the Official Gazette, and that the law thereby enter into force."

She added: "We expect parliament to take stronger steps in the first days after it reconvenes, both through concrete measures toward Turkey's democratization and through new legislation."

Criticism from the PKK

A day before the bill was submitted to parliament, the PKK issued a statement under the name "Movement Leadership," which its leadership has used since announcing the group's dissolution, criticizing what it described as shortcomings in the legislation.

"This law contains serious flaws and shortcomings," the statement said. "The recommendations on democratization and resolving the Kurdish issue contained in the report prepared by the parliamentary commission have not been reflected in this law. In this respect, it has failed to fully achieve its purpose. Referring only to disarmament without using the term Kurdish indicates that the issue has not been addressed in a comprehensive manner."

The statement noted that MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, a key government ally who initiated the process in 2024, had proposed a role for Öcalan as "Coordinator of the Peace Process and Political Transition," but that this was absent from the bill.

"The framework law does not specify the role Rêber Apo will play in this process," the statement said. "Unless Rêber Apo is able to live and work freely and serve as the coordinator of this board, many of the provisions set out in the law will not be realized."

The statement also argued that disarmament could not take place without the possibility of democratic politics: "If, upon returning to Turkey, they cannot engage in democratic politics based on freedom of expression and association, and if they are prosecuted and imprisoned because of what they say and the organizations they establish, then not only will the guerrillas be unable to come down from the mountains, but even politicians who were forced to go to Europe will be unable to return."

Background

The peace initiative to end the four-decade armed conflict began in October 2024, when Bahçeli proposed that jailed PKK leader Öcalan be granted the "right to hope" in exchange for the group laying down its arms. The newly adopted law contains no provision concerning the right to hope.

Öcalan called on the PKK to disarm in February 2025. The group convened a congress in May 2025 and decided to dissolve itself. A symbolic disarmament ceremony was held two months after the congress.

A parliamentary committee established to prepare the legislative framework spent the second half of 2025 working on the issue, hearing civil society groups including the Saturday Mothers/People, academics and journalists.

In January, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), seen by Turkey as an extension of the PKK in Syria, made an integration deal with the Turkey-backed Damascus government. As that integration nears completion, the SDF and the People's Defense Units (YPG) are expected to declare their dissolution.