A small number of a second group of Turkish-Kurdish militants are reported to have pulled back from Turkey on May 15 — into their camps in northern Iraq as part of the beginning of a peace move initiated by the Turkish government to find a political settlement to its three-decade-long Kurdish uprising that has taken the lives of about 50,000 people including civilians, security forces as well as Kurdish rebels.
A cease-fire declared by Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) upon a call made by its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan on March 21 is followed by the withdrawal process of the PKK militants as of May 8, from Turkish soil to their bases in northern Iraq.