Jailed PKK leader tells group to lay down arms, end conflict with Turkiye

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)’s leader, Abdullah Ocalan, has called on its leader to put its own hands down and dissolve itself, putting an end to its 40-year conflict with Turkiye and having an impact on the region.

A delegation from Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party traveled to Ocalan on Thursday and later delivered their statement in Istanbul.

In a letter released by DEM party members, Ocalan wrote, “I am making a call for the laying down of arms, and I take on the historical responsibility of this call.”

According to what they quoted him as saying, Ocalan wants his party to convene a congress and formally consent to its dissolution.

“Convene your congress and make a decision. All groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself”, Ocalan said, according to the statement.

Turkiye and its Western allies label The PKK as a terrorist organization.

Since the PKK’s fight began in 1984, with the intention of removing Kurds from their ethnic homeland, more than 40 000 have died. Since then, it has abandoned its separatist objectives and instead sought greater Kurdish rights and autonomy in southeast Turkiye, but organizations affiliated with the PKK have continued to launch sporadic attacks in Turkiye.

The PKK’s principal oil-exporting region, northern Iraq, and neighboring Syria, which are emerging after 13 years of civil war and Bashar Al-Assad’s ouster in December, could be affected by the appeal from Ocalan.

A Turkiye-PKK peace process collapsed a decade ago.