Kids maintain {a photograph} of the jailed chief of the insurgent Kurdistan Employees’ Celebration, or PKK, Abdullah Ocalan as they collect to look at reside on a television display a Professional-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Celebration, or DEM, delegation members releasing an assertion from Ocalan, in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025.
Metin Yoksu/AP
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Metin Yoksu/AP
ANKARA, Turkey — A Kurdish militant group introduced a historic resolution Monday to disband and disarm as a part of a brand new peace initiative with Turkey, after 4 many years of armed battle.
The choice by the Kurdistan Employees’ Celebration, or PKK, was introduced by the Firat Information Company, a media outlet near the group. It comes days after it convened a celebration congress in northern Iraq.
In February, PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island close to Istanbul since 1999, urged his group to convene a congress and formally resolve to disband, marking a pivotal step towards ending the decadeslong battle that has claimed tens of 1000’s of lives for the reason that Eighties.
On March 1, the PKK introduced a unilateral ceasefire, however connected situations, together with the creation of a authorized framework for peace negotiations.
The group has led an armed insurgency since 1984 that has left claimed tens of 1000’s of lives. It’s listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies.
Firat information mentioned the congress “determined to dissolve the PKK’s organizational construction and the top armed wrestle, with the sensible implementation of this course of to be led and overseen by (Ocalan.) In consequence, actions carried out underneath the identify ‘PKK’ have been formally terminated.”
Congress assessed that the PKK’s wrestle had “introduced the Kurdish problem to the purpose of decision by way of democratic politics, thus finishing its historic mission.”
