ANKARA: Militant fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) will begin handing over weapons in groups in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah on Friday as part of a peace process with Turkiye, Turkish broadcaster NTV reported on Tuesday.
The PKK — locked in a bloody conflict with the Turkish state for more than four decades — decided in May to disband and end its struggle, following a public call from the group’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan in February.
NTV said, without citing sources, that Ocalan would send a video message to the PKK’s base in northern Iraq’s mountainous Qandil region to call for a mechanism for the disarmament process. It would be the first video featuring his face and voice since his jailing in 1999.
The whole process is expected to take around two to five months, NTV said, adding that militants who hand in weapons will stay in Iraq and halt any PKK activities.
On Monday, a delegation from the pro-Kurdish DEM party — Turkiye’s third-biggest party, which played a key role facilitating the disarmament decision — met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara to discuss the process.
NTV earlier reported that Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Turkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, would travel to Baghdad on Tuesday for talks with Iraqi officials to discuss the weapons handover.
Since the PKK launched its insurgency against Turkiye in 1984 — originally with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state — the conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, imposed a huge economic burden and fueled social tensions.
Ankara says skirmishes between Turkish soldiers and PKK militants in southeastern Turkiye and northern Iraq have continued since the group’s decision to disband, adding that Turkiye was still raiding PKK storage areas and bases in the region.
Kurdish PKK militants to begin handing over arms in Iraq on Friday, NTV says
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Kurdish PKK militants to begin handing over arms in Iraq on Friday, NTV says
- A delegation from the pro-Kurdish DEM party met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara to discuss the process of disarmament
India accelerates free trade agreements against backdrop of US tariffs
- India signed a CEPA with Oman on Thursday and a CETA with the UK in July
- Delhi is also in advanced talks for trade pacts with the EU, New Zealand, Chile
NEW DELHI: India has accelerated discussions to finalize free trade agreements with several nations, as New Delhi seeks to offset the impact of steep US import tariffs and widen export destinations amid uncertainties in global trade.
India signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Oman on Thursday, which allows India to export most of its goods without paying tariffs, covering 98 percent of the total value of India’s exports to the Gulf nation.
The deal comes less than five months after a multibillion-dollar trade agreement with the UK, which cut tariffs on goods from cars to alcohol, and as Indian trade negotiators are in advanced talks with New Zealand, the EU and Chile for similar partnerships.
They are part of India’s “ongoing efforts to expand its trade network and liberalize its trade,” said Anupam Manur, professor of economics at the Takshashila Institution.
“The renewed efforts to sign bilateral FTAs are partly an after-effect of New Delhi realizing the importance of diversifying trade partners, especially after India’s biggest export market, the US, levied tariff rates of up to 50 percent on India.”
Indian exporters have been hit hard by the hefty tariffs that went into effect in August.
Months of negotiations with Washington have not clarified when a trade deal to bring down the tariffs would be signed, while the levies have weighed on sectors such as textiles, auto components, metals and labor-intensive manufacturing.
The FTAs with other nations will “help partially in mitigating the effects of US tariffs,” Manur said.
In particular, Oman can “act as a gateway to other Gulf countries and even parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Africa,” and the free trade deal will most likely benefit “labor-intensive sectors in India,” he added.
The chances of concluding a deal with Washington “will prove to be difficult,” said Arun Kumar, a retired economics professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“With the US, the chances of coming to (an agreement) are a bit difficult, because they want to get our agriculture market open, which we cannot do. They want us to reduce trade with Russia. That’s also difficult for India to do,” he told Arab News.
US President Donald Trump has threatened sanctions over India’s historic ties with Moscow and its imports of Russian oil, which Washington says help fund Moscow’s ongoing war with Ukraine.
“President Trump is constantly creating new problems, like with H-1B visa and so on now. So some difficulty or the other is expected. That’s why India is trying to build relationships with other nations,” Kumar said, referring to increased vetting and delays under the Trump administration for foreign workers, who include a large number of Indian nationals.
“Substituting for the US market is going to be tough. So certainly, I think India should do what it can do in terms of promoting trade with other countries.”
India has free trade agreements with more than 10 countries, including comprehensive economic partnership agreements with South Korea, Japan, and the UAE.
It is in talks with the EU to conclude an FTA, amid new negotiations launched this year for trade agreements, including with New Zealand and Chile.
India’s approach to trade partnerships has been “totally transformed,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a press briefing following the signing of the CEPA with Oman, which Indian officials aim to enter into force in three months.
“Now we don’t do FTAs with other developing nations; our focus is on the developed world, with whom we don’t compete,” he said. “We complement and therefore open up huge opportunities for our industry, for our manufactured goods, for our services.”
