Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş said at a joint press conference with visiting Iraqi Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi that PKK fighters based in Iraq are expected to start surrendering weapons to Iraq's central government next month, part of the "terror-free Türkiye" process. Kurtulmuş called the preparations "of vital importance" and said he hoped the process would also help stability in Syria. The PKK decided to disarm and dissolve in May 2025 after a call from jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan, and parliament passed a law in August giving thousands of members a legal path back to civilian life.
The foreign ministers of Türkiye, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates jointly condemned "in the strongest terms" plans by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza. The statement warned the proposals "flagrantly violate" international law and threaten a US-backed peace plan for the territory. The eight nations reaffirmed that a two-state solution, with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, remains the only path to lasting peace.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, reinstated as CHP's interim leader after a court annulled the party's 2023 leadership vote, told Euronews the jailed İstanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is not "a political prisoner", while calling his detention itself unjustified. "We have to separate the trials he faced from the presidential candidacy," Kılıçdaroğlu said, adding he would still vote for İmamoğlu's future presidential bid. İmamoğlu was arrested in March 2025 on corruption charges, with prosecutors seeking a combined 2,430 years in prison.
