Outlawed Kurdish group the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê (PKK), which has waged a 40-year insurgency against Turkey, has announced it is laying down its arms and disbanding.
The move followed a call in February by the group’s jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, for it to disband.
The PKK insurgency initially aimed to create an independent homeland for Kurds, who account for about 20% of Turkey’s population.
But it has since moved away from its separatist goals, focusing instead on more autonomy and greater Kurdish rights.
More than 40 000 people have been killed since the insurgency began.
The PKK – which is banned as a terrorist group in Turkey, the European Union, United Kingdom and United States – said it has “completed its historical mission” and would “end the method of armed struggle”.
From now on, the Kurdish issue “can be resolved through democratic politics”, the group said in a statement published on the PKK-affiliated news agency ANF.
In February, Ocalan (76) called on his movement to lay down its arms and dissolve itself. The PKK leader has been in solitary confinement in prison on an island in the Sea of Marmara, south-west of Istanbul, since 1999.
Ocalan wrote a letter from prison in February saying “there is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and realisation of a political system. Democratic consensus is the fundamental way”.
It is unclear what Ocalan and his supporters will get in return for disbanding, but there is speculation that he may be paroled.
Kurdish politicians will be hoping for a new political dialogue, and a pathway towards greater Kurdish rights.
Both sides had reasons to do a deal now. – BBC
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