The formal dissolution of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in May 2025 has opened an unpredictable but potentially transformational era in the Kurdistan Region.
For decades, the region’s mountainous border areas were caught between two fires: Turkish military operations and the PKK insurgency. While the political ramifications are still developing, the Kurdistan Region now has the opportunity to reclaim abandoned villages, resume agriculture, and create opportunities for tourism and development in places previously blocked off by conflict.
The PKK officially dissolved on May 12, 2025, marking the end of a 47-year armed struggle. The struggle reshaped Turkey’s political and physical landscape so profoundly that no lasting resolution had seemed possible without integrating the PKK into local politics and security structures.
Led by jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan in early 1980, the movement sought a democratic Turkey made in the image of socialist entities popular in South America, but faced fierce backlash from the Turkish state, and peace seemed out of reach. The Kurdistan Region, having escaped the Ba’athist regime of Sadam Hussein in 1991 after almost a century of struggle, notably experienced collateral damage from the PKK-Turkey conflict. Moreover, the PKK’s many transformations over the decades, often aligning with broader leftist ideologies in the region, created disunity for Kurds and was considered by many as an expansionist agenda. For instance, the PKK expanded its presence by establishing affiliated parties in each part of Kurdistan, each under a different name, some of which reject dissolution.
The dissolution follows decades of several negotiations led by European mediators and Kurdish political parties, including Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM party, but its ultimate arrival is welcome. Ocalan’s call for disarmament in February 2025 – delivered via a handwritten letter smuggled from his island prison – promises a fragile peace for communities scarred by displacement, economic paralysis, and intergenerational trauma.
Costs for Turkey, the PKK, and the KRG
The PKK’s conflict with Turkey, both within its border and in the Kurdistan Region, has cost thousands of lives and destabilized the wider region. The conflict has also significantly affected the Kurdistan Region’s prosperity and development, leaving a bitter legacy in the Kurdistan Region: hundreds of villages destroyed or evacuated, thousands displaced, and a generation raised under the hum of Turkish planes, bombardments, and drones, as well as constant threats brought on PKK guerilla gunshots and troop movements.
Peace is necessary for Kurds in Turkey and Turkey as a whole; for Kurdistan, peace also presents an opportunity for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to expand its public services to previously unreached areas. More importantly, it can allow local residents to return to their villages, rebuild their homes, and regenerate their gardens and farms in the most fertile land in the Kurdistan Region.
Reviving Bradost: from conflict to opportunity
People in the Bradost area have been severely impacted by the conflict. They have been deprived of their land, homes, and farms, which will flourish again once the PKK withdraws. There is also significant potential for tourism in the area. Once a hiker’s paradise, Bradost has remained inaccessible for decades due to clashes between the PKK and Turkish armed forces. Pre-2025 estimates suggest the region lost millions of dollars annually in potential ecotourism revenue.
Arkan Bradosti, a local mountaineer and hiking enthusiast, told Kurdistan Chronicle that the end of war would eventually open the area for nature excursions and adventures and would “definitely” lead to better services, more access, and improvement of the agricultural sector: “We hope these goals are realized, as people have suffered due to the war both directly and indirectly. Worse, we have not been able to benefit from the land and properties we have in the Bradost area,” he said.
Bradosti urges the KRG to invest in agriculture and tourism in the region, describing the area as “a wonderful heaven literally resembling the Eden described in the Bible, where rivers merge and cut off mountains into valleys and fertile plains that can boost the economy.”
Sinjar’s fragile hopes for peace
Sinjar, located in the north of the Kurdistan Region, is another war-torn area. PKK-affiliated groups control much of it in coordination with Iraqi militias. Tens of thousands of civilians have yet to return to their homes on the foothills of Sinjar Mountain, having initially been displaced by the expansion of ISIS.
The Yezidi Kurds have experienced multiple layers of oppression and hardship due to their religious and ethnic identity.
While they show resilience and hope to return, they have continued to face hardships in the post-ISIS era, most notably due to PKK guerilla settlements on Sinjar Mountain. Azad Shingali, who lives in Erbil, confirms that they, like many others, cannot go back. Nevertheless, he remains hopeful that the conflict will end. “What would the PKK do there after dissolution?” he asked. “PKK-led militants often harass people who disagree with them. Dozens of young people have enlisted with the group for undisclosed reasons.”
Meanwhile, Kurdish Yezidi MP Vian Dakhil demands “soil, not slogans,” urging the KRG to restore Sinjar’s farms and sacred sites. Yet competing claims by PKK-linked YBS (Sinjar Resistance Units) and KDP-aligned forces threaten renewed strife.
Economic devastation: fields to battlefields
Agriculture has been limited due to conflict in PKK-controlled areas in the north of the Kurdistan Region and Sinjar, which contain wide, fertile areas that have gone largely unused due to security concerns. The KRG’s agricultural output has plummeted by 60% in PKK-held zones since 1993, as olive groves and wheat fields became guerrilla hideouts. Farmers in these areas, reliant on seasonal harvests, are deprived of government services due to PKK control and Turkey’s aerial bombardment.
Restoring hundreds of villages requires millions of dollars, a sum the KRG cannot fund alone. This is where the Iraqi federal government and international community can play vital roles. If opened to its people, the entire northern border of the Kurdistan Region could blossom overnight, as hundreds will return and pick up their tools, reviving agricultural productivity and economic activity.
Power vacuums and promises
The KRG welcomed the PKK’s dissolution as a step toward “coexistence and stability,” but there is the risk of continued unrest in former PKK strongholds like Sinjar. Additionally, recent developments in Iran have put Turkey on alert, as any armed conflict could spread to the entire region and undermine the peace process initiated by the imprisoned PKK leader Ocalan.
Thousands of PKK militants in the KRG face an existential crossroads. While Turkey demands full disarmament and the dissolution of all affiliates — a process fraught with logistical and political hurdles — what remains uncertain is the future of top militant leaders. Some might see the peace-process in Turkey as an effort to weaken pro-Kurdish opposition parties like the DEM, which facilitated Ocalan’s peace call. Others believe it was a pre-emptive approach to prevent major political changes, chaos, and more conflict in the region. On the other hand, DEM lawmakers warn that no disarmament will proceed without legal guarantees for Kurdish rights.
Another key obstacle is the conflict’s often overlooked ecological toll. A significant portion of arable land remains contaminated by landmines from the PKK-Turkish conflict.
The PKK’s dissolution is not an endpoint, but a reckoning. For PKK fighters and locals alike, it’s a tentative chance to replant roots and restart life. Despite these possibilities, there is much skepticism; now, perhaps, the biggest fear is either the total failure or postponement of the peace process due to geopolitical developments. This scenario could disrupt any trust there is between the two parties, which would negatively impact the KRG and threaten regional stability.
Whether this moment marks the dawn of a new era or the beginning of another cycle of delay remains to be seen. Regardless, for many, it may be the last chance for lasting peace.
Yadgar Ismail is an academic, political analyst, journalist and translator specializing in Kurdish identity, postcolonial politics and minority struggles. With a PhD in English Literature, he bridges literary theory with contemporary geopolitics while amplifying marginalized voices through his media work.
