Kurdish PKK militants pull out of 4 camps in northern Iraq as part of peace process with Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Kurdish militants have withdrawn from four camps in northern Iraq as part of a peace effort with Turkey, according to a media report on Monday.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, vacated the camps in the Baze area of northern Iraq’s Metina region, near the Turkish border, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported, citing unidentified security officials.

It identified the camps as Hebat, Yajk, Sabri and Sason and said they were vacated on Oct. 8.

There was no immediate comment from the militant group, whose leadership is based in northern Iraq. The PKK has previously used positions in the region to attack Turkish targets.

Last year, the PKK — designated a terrorist organization by Turkey and its allies — announced its decision to disarm and disband in an effort to end more than four decades of conflict. The announcement followed a call by its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

The group later held a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq and announced it was withdrawing fighters from key locations in Turkey to Iraq.

Last month, Turkey said it would gradually withdraw its forces from a strategic military base in northern Iraq and hand control to the Iraqi government. The announcement followed a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

The reported withdrawal from the camps follows the Turkish parliament’s approval in August of a bill that would grant a conditional pardon to thousands of militants.

The measure will take effect only after Turkey’s National Security Council confirms that the group has fully dissolved and disarmed.

It would suspend certain prison sentences for convicted PKK members and postpone ongoing investigations and trials against others for five or 10 years, depending on the severity of the crime. Authorities would drop cases against those who do not reoffend during those periods. Ocalan and other PKK leaders would be excluded.

Media reports have suggested that Ocalan could nevertheless receive expanded visitation and communication rights at his island prison off Istanbul.

The PKK’s armed insurgency, launched in 1984, has claimed tens of thousands of lives and spilled into Iraq and Syria. The group initially sought an independent Kurdish state but later shifted its demands to autonomy and expanded rights in Turkey.