Amnesty Law Dissolves PKK Membership

The Homecoming Law was adopted on July 29, 2003 and became effective after it was published in the Official Gazette. The duration of the law, which aimed to draw terrorist organization members back into society to maintain social peace and cooperation, ended short of expectations today.

529 out of 630 people who applied from outside the prison system, and 1,000 out of 2,410 people who applied from within the prisons, have been released. Repentance Laws have been applied seven times between 1985 and 2000 and 839 people have benefited.

1,264 people from within the prisons and 254 PKK-Kongra-Gel have benefited from the Homecoming Law so far. 462 of these have been released. 201 of them, who applied from outside the prisons, were released. Most of the released were Hezbollah militants. 389 out of 661 Hezbollah members who applied from prisons, and 302 out of 347 Hezbollah members who applied from outside prisons, were released. 49 out of 151 applicants from the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), an outlawed Marxist group, were released. 37 of 68 applicants from the illegal Turkish Communist Party-Marxist Leninist Organization (TKP-ML TIKKO) members were released as well. Members from a total of 35 organizations submitted applications under the Homecoming Law.