Devlet Bahçeli evaluates PKK's dissolution decision: 'The buds have blossomed'

MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli made a statement regarding the PKK's decision to dissolve.

Bahçeli said, "The Presidential Government System is the third phase of the Republic of Turkey. The dissolution of the terrorist organization is the first goal reached and realized in the new century."

Bahçeli included the following statements in his announcement:

- While the dark shadow of a series of wars and conflicts showing a chain reaction worldwide has brought humanity and geographies under its domination and influence in many ways, the fortification, rewarding, and definition of the Century of Turkey with the awakening of peace and tranquility is the registration of a tremendous breakthrough and a magnificent historical flow.

- The separatist terrorist organization PKK, which was founded on November 27, 1978, in Fis Village of the Lice district of Diyarbakır, and carried out its first armed action on the evening of August 15, 1984, in the Eruh district of Siirt and the Şemdinli district of Hakkari, convened its 12th Congress on May 5-7, 2025, and took decisions in support of the February 27 Imralı call. In this context, the PKK announced this morning that it has laid down its arms and dissolved its organizational existence.

"THE PKK CALAMITY WILL END, THE BLOODY PAGE WILL BE CLOSED NEVER TO BE OPENED AGAIN"

- Thus, the PKK calamity will end, and I hope and wish that the bloody page written with treason for 47 years will be closed never to be opened again. This historical development in question will undoubtedly have very important and exclusive consequences, and the era of armed conflict, which has expired with the sharpening and flourishing of politics and democracy, will be left behind with its painful memories and exemplary lessons learned.

"IMRALI AND THE DEM PARTY HAVE ACCURATELY READ THE RISKS AND THREATS EXCEEDING OUR COUNTRY'S SCOPE"

- The Nationalist Movement Party has resolutely defended the goal of a terror-free Turkey since October 22, 2024, and has not fallen into the booby trap of an exploitation environment and inflammatory rhetoric whose magnitude and audacity are provoked day by day. Our party and the People's Alliance have not taken a step back in any way; in particular, Imralı and the DEM Party have accurately and carefully read the risks and threats that encompass our country.

- By virtue of unity of effort, unity of power, unity of faith, unity of action, and unity of common destiny; the burden of terror and separatism, which has become increasingly heavy to carry on Turkey's back for decades, has been intervened in, and thank God, results have been achieved.

- I find it useful for everyone to know that I am personally overflowing with the proud spirit of feeling the most distinguished and exceptional moment of my life, which I have sacrificed to my nation and country, to my very core, and I consider it of indispensable importance to act more cautiously, more carefully, more cool-headedly, and with more common sense from now on.

- When, where, under what conditions, and within what limits and scale the weapons will be laid down, by whom and how the technical tracking and surveillance of this will be ensured by analyzing its time and space parameters,

- How and in what way the supervision and control of possible transitions and transfers from the dissolved PKK to the PYD/YPG will be ensured simultaneously and in coordination, how the classification and separation of those who have or have not been involved in crimes among the militants of the organization laying down arms will be made, what the scope and boundaries of the measures to be taken regarding the leadership cadre of the PKK terrorist organization will be, and how the structure and framework of strategic and legal steps that will consolidate and carry forward the thousand-year brotherhood and the will to live together, in addition to strengthening democracy and civil politics with political and legal reforms, will be determined must also be addressed, and must be implemented jointly and in accordance with the collective conscience.

- The atmosphere of peace and the security environment must be absolutely permanent and realistic. The swamp of prejudices must be dried, petty squabbles must be ended, ordered tensions where cheap polemics take the stage must be finished, and the parentheses of ideological, unprincipled, and primitive obsessions must be closed.

- It should not be forgotten that darkened hearts, hardened consciences, small calculations, and crippled ambitions will frustrate efforts for tolerance and reconciliation and wither the seedlings of peace and brotherhood.

- It is clear that the Republic of Turkey has never stained its legal personality with the wrongs of denial, destruction, assimilation, and genocide. It is also a historical fact and documented by records that no member of the Turkish nation has been considered a stranger or a foreigner.

"THE TORCH OF A TERROR-FREE TURKEY HAS BEEN LIT"

- This country belongs to all of us; it is a matter of honor and dignity for everyone living on this homeland. The Turk and the Kurd are one and together from eternity to eternity. No internal or external malice or treason scenario will be able to break this togetherness or imprison it in a trap of crisis. No matter what anyone says, no matter who relies on status quo-based and rote-based marginal claims, the torch of a terror-free Turkey has been lit.

- Today, what wins is peace and brotherhood. Today, what wins is politics and democracy. Today, what wins is the Turkish nation from east to west, from south to north, the Republic of Turkey, and even the friendly and brotherly peoples in the neighboring geographies.

As is known, terrorism is the systematic use or threat of constant fear and destruction, directed at specific targets chosen with the intention that this impact will be highest, in order to reach a radical and final result sufficient to transform society or change a structure, where there is no direct causality between the attacker and the attacked. The application of this systematic violence is terror, its practitioner is a terrorist, and its victim is humanity and human values. And this inhumane process of slaughter and destruction will hopefully come to an end in our country.

"FLOWERS WILL BE GATHERED IN OUR FIELDS"

- Flowers will be gathered in our fields, and the breezes of shared destiny and brotherhood that will never cease will prevail in our mountains. The Presidential Government System is the third phase of the Republic of Turkey.

- The dissolution of the terrorist organization is the first goal reached and realized in the new century. From now on, walking hand in hand and all together in pursuit of our national ideals and our ultimate goal will be remembered as a reality of vigilant and capable life, politics, and national existence that will arouse admiration throughout the region and the world.

"I REMEMBER SIRRI SÜREYYA ÖNDER WITH MERCY"

- On this occasion, I remember the late Sırrı Süreyya Önder, who passed away on May 3, 2025, and served the goal of a terror-free Turkey with sincerity, with mercy, and I say may he rest in peace.

HE THANKED ÖCALAN

- I thank and express my gratitude to our President, who made the goal of a terror-free Turkey a state policy and showed his attitude and stance in a self-sacrificing manner, to his colleagues who fought in his party and state bureaucracy and supported the architecture of a terror-free future,

- To Abdullah Öcalan, the founding leader of the PKK, who took historical responsibility with his February 27 call for peace and a democratic society, to the delegations conducting the traffic of contact and meetings between Imralı-DEM Party-Kandil, to the co-chairs, executives, and deputies of the DEM Party,

To every child of the homeland who protects the Turkish and Kurdish brotherhood,

And of course, to all our heroes within the hierarchical chain, including the command echelon of the Turkish Armed Forces.

I commemorate our noble martyrs with mercy and wish our veterans a long and healthy life.

I respectfully greet the great Turkish nation and pray to God that the historical developments and decisions regarding a terror-free Turkey will be auspicious.