The Kurdish group is calling on Ankara to release his imprisoned leader, Abdullah Okaran, who has been detained near isolation since 1999.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has declared it will implement a ceasefire with Takiy, and has listened to and disarmed calls from imprisoned leader Abdullah Okaran, Kurdish media reports.
The announcement by the outlaw group, reported on Saturday by Pro-PKK Firat News Agency (ANF), is considered a major step towards ending a 40-year conflict with the Turkish state.
“We are declaring an effective ceasefire from today to pave the way for the peace of leaders’ appointments and implementation of the call to a democratic society,” the PKK Executive Committee said in a statement cited by the ANF.
“We say we agree with the phone, follow and implement it, just like we do with that situation,” the committee said.
“None of our troops will engage in force unless they are attacked,” he added.
The group added that since 1999, Ankara hopes to release Ocalan, which is almost completely isolated, so they can lead the disarmament process and need to establish the political and democratic conditions necessary for the process to be successful.
The statement did not specifically set a timeline for when the group would break up.
On Thursday, Okaran made a historic call from the party from prison, abandoning its weapons, disbanding itself, and ending decades-long conflict with the Turkish state.
Okaran, 75, has been jailed on Imurali Island off Istanbul since 1999 after being convicted of discord. Despite his incarceration, he continues to have a major influence on the PKK, which he founded in 1978.
The next day, President Recept Tayyip Erdogan of Turkier welcomed Ocaran’s call and described it as a “historical opportunity” for peace.
He said that in order for Turkiye to “keep the meticulous clock,” he would confirm that consultations to end the rebellion will “take a successful conclusion.”
“If terrorism and arms pressures are eliminated, the political space in democracy will naturally expand,” Erdogan promised.
Turkiye, designated a terrorist group by the US and the European Union, the PKK has undergone a rebellion since 1984 with the aim of carving the Kurdish homeland, which accounts for about 20% of Turkiye’s 85 million people.
Since Ocaran was imprisoned in 1999, there have been various attempts to end the bloodshed, killing more than 40,000 people.
Previous peace efforts at the PKK had recently failed in 2015.
The PKK was ready to convene the assembly as Ocaran had hoped on Saturday, but said “in order to make this happen we must create a proper safe environment,” while Ocaran said “we must personally direct and lead it for the success of the assembly.”
Turkiye’s neighbor, Iraq, welcomed Okaran’s appeal and said it was “a positive and important step towards achieving stability in the region.”
The PKK presence in Iraq is a recurring source of tensions between Baghdad and Ankara. The group holds position in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. There, Turkiye also maintains military bases and often conducts ground and air operations against Kurdish armed groups.
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