A Kurdish group, which has been carrying out a bloody uprising against the Turkish state for 40 years, said on Monday it would abandon its arms and end the conflict.
The announcement by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by the Kurdish acronym PKK, comes months after imprisoned leader Abdullah Okaran urged the group to disarm and disband. In his February message, he said that the armed struggle of the PKK lived longer than its original purpose.
The PKK began as a separatist group that sought to create an independent state for the Kurdish minority of Turkish people. Recently, he said he is seeking greater rights for Kurds within Türkiye.
In a statement on Monday, the group said “we brought the Kurdish issues to a level that could be solved by democratic politics, and that the PKK has completed its mission in that sense.”
The group said Okaran should lead the disarming process and would like to call on Turkish parliament to be part of it.
The decision could end one of Turkey's most enduring security issues and bring a major political victory to President Recept Tayyip Erdogan.
Movement may end a A conflict that claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people.
The PKK declaration could have a major impact on other Kurdish militias, particularly in Syria, and could shift regional dynamics across the Turkish border.
The Kurds, an ethnic group of around 40 million, are spreading across Türkiye, Syria, Iran and Iraq. They were promised their nation by the world powers after World War I, and then launched various rebellions to assert unclear promises.
In almost every country they live in, Kurds face state support suppression of their language and culture.
It was not immediately clear how the decision would affect PKK bases hidden in mountainous regions of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region. Turkey repeatedly attacked PKK sites in northern Iraq, a derivative of the group that controls Syria's northeastern region, branding the threat of terrorists near the border.
Turkish officials publicly argued that the government did not offer concessions to the PKK to persuade the PKK to disarm it. However, Türkiye's leading pro-Kurdish party officials have expressed their hope that the government will expand the cultural and educational rights of Kurds.
Safak Timur contributed the report.
