PKK Kurdish rebel fighters begin withdrawing form Turkey
More than 2,000 PKK fighters have begun leaving Turkey, some on foot, on their way to their strongholds in the Qandil mountains of the Kurdish republic of northern Iraq. This exodus signals the winding-down of the outlawed movement’s 29 years of separatist insurgency against the Turkish government, which left tens of thousands dead. They will join 5,000 PKK comrades at the command base which served as their springboard for attacks on Turkish security forces, in obedience to their jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has accepted a historic ceasefire with the Turkish government.