When the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a proscribed organization, announced last month its intention to disband and conclude its decades-long insurgency against Turkey, Leila harbored hopes of a swift reunion with her son.
Three years prior, the former sandwich vendor had left home to join the PKK – designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, UK, and EU – in the remote Qandil Mountains, situated near Iraq’s border with Iran.
Aside from two video messages, the most recent of which was sent in March, Leila has had no contact with her son since his departure.
“Initially, upon hearing the announcement, I was overjoyed,” recounts Leila, whose name has been altered to protect her from potential repercussions from the group.
“However, as time has elapsed, the situation remains unchanged.”
For four decades, the PKK has been engaged in a conflict with Turkey, resulting in over 40,000 fatalities, a significant number of whom were civilians, making it one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.
In discussions with the BBC, some families vehemently condemned the PKK, while others expressed pride in the sacrifices of family members who died fighting for the group, believing their contributions paved the way for peace negotiations.
The PKK’s declaration of cessation of hostilities was widely perceived as a watershed moment for Turkey, its Kurdish minority, and neighboring nations affected by the conflict.
Yet, since then, no formal peace process has commenced with Turkey, and an official ceasefire remains elusive, with reports of continued violence on both sides.
Originally established with the aim of establishing an independent Kurdish state within Turkey, the PKK has, since the 1990s, redirected its focus towards advocating for enhanced cultural and political autonomy for the Kurds.
Leila, residing in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq bordering Turkey, recalls that she had no prior knowledge of the PKK until her son, an Iraqi-Kurd in his twenties, returned home one day discussing the group’s ideologies.
She accuses the group of “brainwashing” her son, persuading him that they were defending the ethnic Kurdish minorities in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Kurds constitute the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, yet lack a nation state.
Leila notes that over time, her son exhibited increasing independence, including making his bed, washing his clothes, and doing the dishes. She now believes that the PKK was preparing him for the arduous life he would soon lead in the mountains.
On the day of his departure, he arrived home with three “comrades” to inform his mother that he was embarking on six months of training in the mountains.
She asserts that she repeatedly attempted to dissuade him from joining the PKK, but he remained resolute in his decision.
“He was so determined. Arguing with him would have been futile.”
Since then, Leila says she has regularly visited the Qandil Mountains in the hope of catching a glimpse of her son, but has never seen him.
“If they just let me see him once a year, I would be happy,” she says.
The BBC traveled to the Qandil Mountains, having been granted rare access by the PKK to film there.
The mountains, which are sparsely populated and known for their natural beauty, help shield thousands of PKK fighters from Turkish air strikes.
The journey took hours of driving up narrow, bumpy roads, in an area where there are few signs of inhabitation apart from a handful of farmers and shepherds.
As the BBC approached a PKK checkpoint, we saw large pictures of the group’s leader and founding member Abdullah Ocalan – imprisoned by Turkey in solitary confinement since 1999 – displayed across the mountains. But when the BBC reached the checkpoint, the PKK denied us entry.
We were later told by PKK authorities that talks are underway with the group and they did not want media attention.
They did not say what the talks were about, though Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Mohammed Hussein last month told the BBC discussions would be taking place with the PKK, Turkey, Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government to discuss how the group’s weapons will be handed over.
So far, the terms of a possible peace deal between Turkey and the PKK are unknown.
The PKK told the BBC in a written statement that it is sincere and serious about the process, insisting its leader, Ocalan, must be freed.
“The ball is now in Turkey’s court. A peace process cannot develop based on unilateral steps,” said Zagros Hiwa, the spokesman for the PKK-linked Kurdistan Democratic Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group of regional Kurdish organisations.
But in a possible sign of the hurdles ahead, a senior local commander, who’s part of the second line of leadership within the group in Iraq, told the BBC in a written statement that in his view disarmament is “not up for discussion”.
Still suspicious about Turkey’s intentions, he adds that “when we address the reasons of the armed conflict, weapons will be of no use for both sides”.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s apparent willingness to bring an end to the conflict with the PKK has been interpreted by some as a bid to attract Kurdish support for a new constitution to extend his 22-year-rule, which he denies.
He has described the PKK’s decision to disband as an important step towards “our goal of a Turkey without terrorism”.
Writing on X, the Turkish president said a new era was about to begin after “the elimination of terror and violence”.
For some families whose loved ones were killed fighting for the PKK, the idea the conflict might soon end is bitter-sweet.
Kawa Takoor was 21 when he was killed two years ago. His sister, Rondek Takoor, who lives in Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, last saw him in the Qandil Mountains in 2019.
Speaking from the family home, where photos of Kawa adorn the living room walls, Rondek says her brother’s death changed the family’s life. “I always dream about him,” she says with tearful eyes.
Rondek, who is in her twenties, still remembers the last conversation they had together.
“I asked him if he would like to go back home with me and he said ‘never’. He even asked me to join him in the mountains,” she says.
For Rondek and her family, who are pro-PKK, the group disbanding would be both a moment of “pride and pain, especially after our huge loss”.
She believes that “it’s the sacrifices we’ve made and the martyrs we’ve lost, that paved the way for leaders to talk peace”.
What happens next is uncertain.
There are questions about what would happen to thousands of Turkish PKK fighters and whether they would be allowed to reintegrate into Turkish society.
Turkish officials have yet to say whether these fighters will be treated as criminals and face prosecution. But Turkish media reports have suggested fighters who haven’t committed crimes in Turkey could return without fear of prosecution, though PKK leaders might be forced into exile to other countries or required to stay in Iraq.
It is also unclear what the group disbanding would mean for other Kurdish groups, notably in north-east Syria, which Turkey regards as being off-shoots of the PKK.
During the Syrian civil war, Turkish forces and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched a series of offensives to capture border areas held by a Syrian Kurdish militia called the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The YPG dominates an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces, which drove the Islamic State group out of a quarter of Syria with the help of a US-led multinational coalition.
The YPG says it is a distinct entity from the PKK, but Turkey rejects that and proscribes it as a terrorist organisation.
Erdogan has said the PKK’s decision to disband should “cover all extensions of the organisation in Northern Iraq, Syria and Europe”. SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said the PKK’s decision would “pave the way for a new political and peaceful process in the region”.
However, he has also said that the PKK’s disarmament does not apply to the SDF, which signed a separate deal to merge with the Syrian armed forces in December.
In Iran, the PJAK group, which is also part of the KCK, has told BBC Turkish that it supports the “new process” in Turkey, but that it is not planning to disarm or disband itself.
PJAK is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and Iran. There has been a de facto ceasefire between the group and the Iranian government since 2011.
Turkey says the PJAK is the Iranian arm of the PKK, but the Kurdish groups deny this.
For mothers like Leila, all the complexities of politics and the intricate balance of military powers across the region are irrelevant. What she cares about is having her son with her again.
“He will come back home when he gets tired of the harsh life in the mountains, at some point he will realise that he can take it no more.”
If this happens, Leila plans to leave their home city where her son was recruited by the PKK.
“This city has brought me nothing but pain.”
The Kurdish group has waged a 40-year insurgency against Turkey, but has now said it will dissolve itself.
There are calls for an amnesty for PKK prisoners, after the end of its 40-year insurgency against Turkey.
The PKK calls for the release of its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan to lead a process of disarmament.
Abdullah Ocalan had earlier met pro-Kurdish MPs on an island where he has been in jail since 1999.
As Syria’s interim leader plans its future, Kurds in the north-east are battling Turkish-backed forces.