The banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant organization announced a sudden ceasefire on Saturday, according to a news agency affiliated with it, responding to imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan’s call for disarmament, marking a significant move to conclude a 40-year rebellion against the Turkish government.
On Thursday, Ocalan urged the PKK to relinquish its weapons and disband, a call that received backing from both President Tayyip Erdogan’s administration and the opposition pro-Kurdish DEM party.
If it succeeds, the action could have far-reaching effects for the region, while concluding a conflict that has claimed over 40,000 lives since the PKK – currently situated in the northern Iraqi mountains – initiated its armed uprising in 1984.
This could provide Erdogan with a domestic advantage and a historic chance to foster peace and progress in southeastern Turkey, where the conflict has claimed numerous lives and deeply impacted the economy.
The group expressed its hope that Ankara would grant Ocalan, who has been in near total isolation since 1999, greater freedoms to facilitate a disarmament process, noting that essential political and democratic conditions need to be created for it to succeed.
“We, as the PKK, fully agree with the content of the call and state that, from our front, we will heed the necessities of the call and implement it,” the group said in a statement, according to the Firat news agency.
The PKK, labeled a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western partners, stated it was prepared to hold a congress, as requested by Ocalan, but that essential security measures need to be in place for him to “personally oversee and manage” it.
