Kurdish PKK: We’ll Heed Ocalan’s Peace Call and Declare Ceasefire

By Staff, Agencies

The Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK] militia declared an immediate ceasefire on Saturday, a news agency affiliated with the group said, heeding jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan's call for disarmament, 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 Tayyep Erdogan's government and the opposition pro-Kurdish DEM party have 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.

The group said in a statement it hoped Ankara would release Ocalan, held in near total isolation since 1999, so he can lead a process of disarmament, adding that the necessary political and democratic conditions need to be established for the process to succeed.

According to the Firat news agency the group declared, “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.”

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