Outlawed Kurdish party announces ceasefire with Turkey

In a historic move, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has announced a ceasefire with Turkey after more than four decades of armed conflict.

The declaration follows a significant appeal from the group's jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, urging the PKK to disband and abandon its insurgency.

The ceasefire, which took effect on Saturday, was confirmed by the PKK’s executive committee in a statement carried by the pro-PKK ANF news agency. "To facilitate the implementation of leader Apo’s call for peace and a democratic society, we are declaring a ceasefire effective immediately," the statement read, using a common reference for Ocalan. The group also affirmed its commitment to following Ocalan’s directives.

The PKK, which has been designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union, has been engaged in an armed struggle since 1984, seeking greater autonomy for Turkey’s Kurdish population, which constitutes approximately 20% of the country’s 85 million people.

Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, has previously participated in peace efforts, but negotiations collapsed in 2015, leading to renewed violence. The latest breakthrough came in October when a nationalist ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unexpectedly proposed a peace initiative, suggesting a resolution if Ocalan renounced violence.

Erdogan supported the peace overture but simultaneously intensified crackdowns on opposition figures, resulting in the arrests of numerous politicians, activists, and journalists.

Following a series of meetings with Ocalan in his island prison, the pro-Kurdish DEM party on Thursday conveyed his message calling for the PKK to lay down arms and formally dissolve.