The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group has declared a ceasefire with Turkiye, accepting the call of their imprisoned leader to lay down their arms and drop their decades-long fight against the Turkish state, reports the Middle East Monitor.
On Thursday, Abdullah Ocalan – the leader of the PKK who has been imprisoned on a Turkish island for the past 25 years – issued a statement calling for his Kurdish separatist group’s “laying down of arms, and I take on the historical responsibility of this call”.
His statement, which was made in a letter revealed by members of Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM party, also expressed the leader’s desire for the PKK to hold a congress in which they formally agree to dissolve the group
Following that call by the 75-year-old Ocalan, the PKK’s executive committee on Saturday issued its own statement broadcast by its ANF news outlet, saying that “in order to pave the way for the implementation of leader Apo’s [Ocalan’s] call for peace and democratic society, we are declaring a ceasefire effective from today”. The group assured that “none of our forces will take armed action unless attacked”.
The group confirmed that “we agree with the content of the call as it is and we say that we will follow and implement it”, but added some conditions it expects to be carried out within that goal. Those include the demand for Ocalan himself to “personally direct and lead it for the success of the congress”.
The PKK also urged for the easing of Ocalan’s prison conditions, stating that he “must be able to live and work in physical freedom and be able to establish unhindered relationships with anyone he wants, including his friends.”
