PKK to end armed campaign and withdraw to Kurdish Northern Iraq

From The Economist

REBELS of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) will begin withdrawing from Turkey to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq on May 8th. The announcement made last week by Murat Karayilan, a top PKK commander in the field, heralded a strategic shift in the Kurds’ long-running struggle for greater rights.

If all goes according to plan the PKK’s 29-year armed campaign for Kurdish independence (an aim that was later scaled down to autonomy) will have come to a close. It remains a big if but the potential rewards are huge. Peace with the Kurds would remove one of the biggest obstacles to democratic reform and, in theory, ease Turkey’s membership of the European Union.

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