The known militant armed group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has announced the formal dissolution of the group nearly five decades after it was founded.
The group has been battling the state of Turkey for more than forty years (40) years.
Founded in 1978, the southeastern militant group is with an ideology based on Marxist-Leninist ideas.
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A news agency close to the group confirmed the development stating that “in February, Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK’s founder who is jailed in Turkey, appealed for it to disarm and dissolve.
The decision opens the door to ending a conflict that has ravaged southeastern Turkey, and will also have significant implications for Syria and Iraq.
WHAT DOES THE GROUP WANT?
The PKK launched its insurgency against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state.
It later moderated its goals to seeking greater Kurdish rights and limited autonomy in southeast Turkey.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, most of them militants. Much of the fighting was focused in rural areas of mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, but the group also conducted attacks in urban areas including Ankara and Istanbul.
Fighting dwindled after Ocalan’s capture, which led to the withdrawal of rebel fighters from Turkey.
After a flare-up in violence, Turkey and the PKK became involved in peace talks from late 2012. That process collapsed in July 2015, unleashing the bloodiest period of the conflict and resulting in extensive destruction in some urban areas of southeast Turkey.
In October of 2024, Devlet Bahceli, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader and President Tayyip Erdogan’s political ally, shocked Ankara when he suggested Ocalan could be released if he announced an end to his group’s insurgency.
Erdogan’s ruling AKP backed the proposal and leaders of the opposition pro-Kurdish DEM party, which seeks greater Kurdish rights and autonomy, has held talks with Ocalan at his prison.
The PKK, declared an immediate ceasefire following the call and said it was ready to convene a congress, as Ocalan urged, but the necessary security conditions should be established for him to “personally direct and run” it.