Kurdish Group PKK Declares Ceasefire With Turkey After Over 40 Years Of Conflict

Last Updated:March 01, 2025, 16:25 IST

If successful, the move could have wide-ranging implications for the region, while 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.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, said it was ready to convene a congress.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group declared an immediate ceasefire on Saturday, a news agency close to it said, heeding jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan’s disarmament call, in a major step toward ending a 40-year insurgency against the Turkish state.

Ocalan on Thursday called on the PKK to lay down its arms and dissolve, a move that President Tayyip Erdogan’s government and the opposition pro-Kurdish DEM party voiced support for.

If successful, the move could have wide-ranging implications for the region, while 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 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 hurt 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.

“Beyond this, issues like laying down arms being put into practice can only be realised under the practical leadership of Leader Apo," the group said, using its nickname for Ocalan, adding it would halt all hostilities immediately unless attacked.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, said it was ready to convene a congress, as Ocalan called for, but the necessary security conditions should be established for him to “personally direct and run" it.

That’s according to a letter read by Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM party.

Previous efforts to end the insurgency, held in the years 2009-11 and 2013-15, failed and resulted in increased violence.

The DEM party urged the government on Friday to take steps towards democratisation, telling Reuters that its response was critical.

For the process to advance, the PKK said Ocalan must be given “physical freedom, achieve living and working conditions, form relationships with anyone he wants, including friends, without obstacles".

Whether Ankara will address these issues is unclear. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc told broadcaster CNN Turk on Friday that no amnesty, house arrest, or other options were being discussed, and that there were no negotiations.

Analysts have said Erdogan, who has made repeated efforts in the past to end the conflict, is focused on the domestic political dividends that peace could bring as he looks to extend his two-decade rule beyond 2028 when his term expires.

Ankara, Turkey

News world Kurdish Group PKK Declares Ceasefire With Turkey After Over 40 Years Of Conflict