Sabah Numan, spokesperson for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, announced that Baghdad, Erbil and Ankara have established a joint mechanism to secure the positions vacated by the PKK. Under this arrangement, Iraqi Border Guards and Peshmerga forces will be deployed along the Iraq-Türkiye border in areas such as Qandil, Zap, Metina and Gara.
Five locations will be designated along the border between Erbil and Sulaymaniyah where PKK members will surrender their weapons. The weapons will be recorded in an inventory, while MİT will conduct on-site inspections to verify that 72 positions and shelters have been vacated. While 7 to 8 thousand PKK members are expected to return to Türkiye from Iraq and Syria, approximately 230 senior leaders and members accused of killing will not be eligible to benefit from the law.
Why it matters
This arrangement indicates that responsibility for security in the areas vacated by the PKK will not be assigned to a single actor but will depend on coordination among Baghdad, Erbil and Ankara. The deployment of Iraqi Border Guards and Peshmerga forces along the border highlights the need for joint oversight aimed at preventing the vacated positions from being put back into use. The process of surrendering and registering weapons will be decisive in documenting how returning members leave the armed organization. However, the legal process to be applied to the leaders and members accused of killing who are excluded from the arrangement remains one of the plan’s clearest unresolved questions. In addition, how the evacuation of 72 positions and shelters will be verified on the ground will determine how the mechanism operates.
Background
Silahlı is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: over the past 90 days, we have published 2 news reports mentioning this name; the most recent was dated September 2, 2026.