The pull out comes six months after the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) formally renounced its armed struggle against Turkey, drawing a line under four decades of violence that had claimed some 50,000 lives.
"As of the evening of November 16, our forces.. in the Zap region have been withdrawn," the group said in a statement published by Firat news agency.
"Currently the risk of conflict in the area has been completely eliminated," it said, describing the withdrawal from Zap as a "significant practical contribution" that showed the PKK's "commitment" to ongoing efforts to reset ties with Ankara.
"We believe this new step will serve the resolution of the Kurdish issue and will help with the peace and democratisation of Turkey."
Ankara began indirect talks with the PKK late last year, with its jailed founder Abdullah Ocalan in February urging his militants to lay down their weapons and embrace democratic means to advance the Kurdish cause.
After formally announcing their dissolution in May, they began destroying their weapons in July and in late October, began withdrawing all their forces from Turkish soil to northern Iraq.
Turkey has set up a cross-party parliamentary commission to lay the groundwork for the peace process and prepare a legal framework for the political integration of the PKK and its fighters.
The PKK has long had bases in the Zap region of northern Iraq, which was targeted by Turkish troops in a ground operation in 2008.
The Turkish military has consistently focused its operations on the Zap area, which has seen intense clashes over the years, despite the operational difficulties of advancing in such mountainous terrain.
Until recently, the PKK has maintained a strong presence in Zap, which has symbolic importance for the militants as the place where its headquarters were initially located before moving further east to the Qandil Mountains.
A resident in a nearby area told AFP the Zap region was very sparsely populated with only PKK militants and Turkish troops operating there, apart from shepherds who would go there during the summer months.
Due to the rugged nature of the terrain, the PKK sometimes used drones to deliver food and clothes to its fighters, the resident said.
The PKK says it wants to pursue a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority in line with a historic call in February by Ocalan who has led the process from his prison cell on Imrali island near Istanbul.
The 76-year-old has been serving a life sentence there in solitary confinement since 1999.
Syria to hand over Uyghur jihadist fighters to China: sources
Damascus (AFP) Nov 17, 2025 -
Syria intends to hand over jihadist fighters from China's Uyghur minority to Beijing, two sources told AFP on Monday, but the foreign ministry in Damascus denied the report.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani was on his first visit to China on Monday.
Since toppling longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad nearly a year ago, Syria's new Islamist authorities have sought to break with their jihadist past and rebuild the country's diplomatic presence after years of international isolation.
Jihadists from China's Uyghur Muslim minority went to Syria after war erupted in 2011, mostly as part of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), which was active in Idlib province and was allied with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamists who led the offensive that ousted Assad.
The issue of the Uyghur fighters was expected to be on Shaibani's agenda in Beijing, a Syrian government source told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that "based on China's request, Damascus intends to hand over the fighters in batches".
China refused the fighters' integration into the new Syrian army, the source added.
A diplomatic source in Syria, also requesting anonymity, told AFP that "Syria intends to hand over 400 Uyghur fighters to China in the coming period".
After AFP published its report, state news agency SANA quoted a foreign ministry source denying it.
"AFP's report regarding the Syrian government's intention to hand over fighters to China is without foundation," the source said without elaborating, according to SANA.
- 'Appreciation' -
China's foreign ministry said in a statement that "the Syrian side has pledged not to allow any entity to use Syrian territory to harm China's interests".
"China expressed its appreciation and hopes that Syria will take effective measures to implement this commitment, thereby removing security obstacles to the stable development of China-Syria relations," the statement added.
Shaibani said in a statement that "Syria will not be a source of threat to China and will not allow any entities to use its territory to carry out activities that would harm China's security, sovereignty and interests".
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said that between 3,200 and 4,000 Uyghur fighters were still in Syria and were integrated into the new Syrian army as a division.
According to the diplomatic and government sources, the fighters slated for handover to China are not among those integrated into the military.
Earlier this month, China abstained from a United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution to lift sanctions on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
China "expressed legitimate concerns about counterterrorism issues -- in particular (foreign terrorist fighters) in Syria", said China's UN ambassador Fu Cong at the time.
After taking power, Syria's new authorities announced the dissolution of all armed groups, most of which were absorbed into the defence ministry.
In December, Sharaa tapped former rebels for high-ranking army positions, including a Uyghur who was a member of the TIP, the Observatory had said.
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