Le Monde: What did the PKK get in exchange for dissolving itself?

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced its dissolution on Monday, ending more than four decades of armed struggle against the Turkish Republic, a move hailed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as an important step toward the goal of a terrorism-free Türkiye.
In this context, French Le Monde newspaper posed a number of questions to Didier Billion, deputy director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), a specialist in Türkiye affairs, to shed further light on this move and understand its dimensions and significance.
Didier Billion said that this announcement is of great importance, although it’s too early to know its dimensions due to the differences and sensitivities that may not have been expressed at this party conference, as well as the lack of sufficient information about the negotiations between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Turkish government.
Billion stated that we must first determine what will happen to the PKK leaders and fighters, and how they will be reintegrated into Turkish society.
What will happen to the political prisoners associated with the party?
What about the members of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (HDP), a legal Kurdish party suspected of collusion with the PKK?
What will happen to the historical leader and founder of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned for 26 years?
In short, what did the PKK get in exchange for dissolving itself?
Didier Billion pointed out that this decision may have been motivated by Kurdish demands related to cultural and political identity, emphasizing that achieving this would be a daunting task because Türkiye is a highly centralized state built on the denial of the concept of minority.
It would be difficult for its constitution to refer to the “Turkish peoples,” as that would imply recognition of the existence of multiple identities in the country, a task that Turkish nationalists would resist.
When Le Monde asked him whether the PKK’s decision reflected its weakness, Billion responded affirmatively, stating that the PKK had become militarily weak, as evidenced by the decline in its operations in recent years.
He indicated that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would exploit this situation and benefit from it, presenting himself as a peacemaker who had eradicated terrorism.
Duran Kalkan, a member of the PKK’s executive committee, said that the party’s self-dissolution “isn’t the end” but rather “a new beginning”.
“The Kurdish struggle will be concentrated in the political arena, and Kurds will stand behind their cultural, political, and social demands in a battle that is not yet settled, as it will clash with Turkish nationalism,” according to Billion.
On the regional level, billion believes that the Kurdish issue isn’t uniform in Türkiye, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and therefore there will be no radical change in other countries, except for the disappearance of the military base in Türkiye, which is indeed extremely important.