By TOM MIDLANE
Published: | Updated:
Kurdish militants who have waged a 40-year insurgency in Turkey declared a ceasefire on Saturday, two days after their imprisoned leader called for the group to disarm.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, is a Marxist-Leninist Kurdish separatist group established in 1978 with the goal of creating a unified, independent Kurdistan.
It is classified as a terrorist organisation in Turkey – as well as by most Western states, NATO, and the European Union.
The group’s leader Abdullah Ocalan has been imprisoned on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara since February 1999 where he is serving a life sentence.
In a statement published by the Firat News Agency, a media outlet close to the PKK, the group said: ‘We declare a ceasefire effective today to pave the way for the implementation of Leader Apo’s Call for Peace and Democratic Society. None of our forces will take armed action unless attacked.’
The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has led to tens of thousands of deaths since it began in 1984.
On Thursday, a delegation of Kurdish politicians announced Ocalan’s call for the PKK to lay down its arms and disband after visiting him on his island prison earlier the same day.
The ceasefire is the first sign of a break in the conflict since peace talks between the PKK and Ankara broke down in the summer of 2015.
Kurdistan Workers’ Party supporters in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, display a poster depicting the group’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, 75, after he called on the PKK to disarm and dissolve itself
A shot from September 28, 1993, showing Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan during a press conference in Masnaa on the Lebanon-Syria border
In its statement, the PKK said Ocalan’s statement indicated that a ‘new historical process has begun in Kurdistan and the Middle East.’ Kurdistan refers to the parts of Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran inhabited by Kurds.
While stating that it would ‘comply with and implement the requirements of the call from our own side,’ the PKK emphasized that ‘democratic politics and legal grounds must also be suitable for success.’
The ceasefire came as the main pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey has faced pressure, with several of its mayors being removed from office in recent months and replaced by government appointees.
The group also called for Ocalan to be released from Imrali prison, located in the Marmara Sea, to ‘personally direct and execute’ a party congress that would lead to the militants laying down their arms.