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 468 in favour and 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.