Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz will chair the first meeting of the "Board of Monitoring and Assessment" on Monday, established within the framework of the Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Cohesion. The law and the board are the culmination of a monthslong process called terror-free Türkiye, which aims for the disarmament of the terrorist group PKK. The PKK succumbed to calls for dissolution in 2025 after years of violence, and its members are expected to surrender to authorities after the new law was introduced earlier this month. The law is applicable only after verification of the PKK’s full disarmament, which is currently monitored by authorities.
The board has the ministers of justice, foreign affairs, interior, and national defense among its members, along with the presidency’s secretary-general, the intelligence chief, and the secretary-general of the National Security Board (NSB).
Turkish media outlets reported that the first meeting will focus on the establishment of lower boards that will address different aspects of the initiative. The first one to be established will be tasked with coordinating the handover of weapons possessed by the PKK and on-site verification mechanisms to that extent. Most PKK members are holed up in northern Iraq, in a mountainous territory where the group apparently has a complex cave system used as a hideout. The lower board will discuss and determine where and when the weapons will be handed over to authorities. A separate lower board will be tasked with judicial proceedings for PKK members who turn themselves in, and this board will receive input from judicial members in charge of the initiative. According to media reports, this board will also be tasked with classifying the legal files of each PKK member and determining how they can benefit from the new law.
