PKK militants declare ceasefire with Turkey to end 40-year bloodshed
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group has declared a ceasefire with Turkey after a call by its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan to disarm, a major step towards ending a 40-year conflict and bloodshed with Ankara.
The announcement was made on Saturday after Ocalan called for the dissolution of PKK and asked the militant group to lay down arms to terminate fighting with the Turkish state for over four decades, which has claimed over 40,000 lives.
“In order to pave the way for the implementation of leader Apo’s call for peace and democratic society, we are declaring a ceasefire effective from today,” the PKK executive committee said in a statement quoted by ANF news agency, referring to Ocalan.
“We agree with the content of the call as it is and we say that we will follow and implement it,” the committee said. “None of our forces will take armed action unless attacked.”
The militant group expressed hope that Ankara would release 75-year-old Ocalan, jailed since 1999, so he can lead the process of disarmament, underscoring the necessity of establishing political and democratic conditions for the process to succeed.
The group also said Ocalan’s prison conditions must be eased, adding he “must be able to live and work in physical freedom and be able to establish unhindered relationships with anyone he wants, including his friends.”
The statement stopped short of specifically setting a timeline for when the PKK will disband.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed Ocalan’s call for the dissolution and disarmament of the group, describing it as a “historic opportunity” for peace.
Stressing that Ankara would “keep a close watch” to make sure the peace talks were “brought to a successful conclusion,” Erdogan said, “When the pressure of terrorism and arms is eliminated, the space for politics in democracy will naturally expand.”
The group has waged an insurgency since 1984, intending to carve out a homeland for Kurds, who account for about 20 percent of Turkey’s 85 million people.
More recently, the PKK claimed an October attack on the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) headquarters near Ankara, which left five people dead.
The PKK’s presence in Iraq has been a recurrent source of tension between Baghdad and Ankara.
The group holds positions in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, where Turkey also maintains military bases and often carries out ground and air operations against the Kurdish militants.
The militant group is banned as a terrorist group in Turkey, the European Union, the UK, and the US.
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PKK militants declare ceasefire with Turkey to end 40-year bloodshed
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