The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group declared an immediate ceasefire, heeding jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan’s disarmament call, in a major step toward ending a 40-year insurgency.
The ceasefire could have wide-ranging implications for the region if it succeeds in ending a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people since the PKK – now based in the mountains of northern Iraq – launched its armed insurgency in 1984.
It could also give Erdogan a domestic boost and an historic opportunity to bring peace and development to southeast Turkey, where the conflict has killed thousands and severely damaged the economy.
The group said it hoped Ankara would give Ocalan, held in near total isolation since 1999, more freedoms so he can lead a disarmament process, adding that the necessary political and democratic conditions must be established for it to succeed.
“We, as the PKK, fully agree with the content of the call and state that, from our front, we will heed the necessities of the call and implement it,” the group said in a statement, according to the Firat news agency.
The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, 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.
