site.btaPKK Decides to Disband and Lay Down Arms at Congress, Decision Expected to Be Announced Shortly, Turkish E-zine Says

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has decided to disband and lay down arms at a congress held May 5-7, but the public announcement of the decision was delayed due to the death of a pro-Kurdish MP, reports the Turkish news site Haberler on Friday. It quotes a statement by PKK saying that the party congress has taken "decisions of historic magnitude".

The decisions are expected to be announced "very soon".

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has prepared a roadmap outlining the legal steps to be taken in the process, according to Haberler.

The process, called Turkiye without Terror, began with statements from the leader of the National Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli, who is an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and continued with a call from PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to lay down arms and disband the organization, Haberler writes.

According to information from senior AKP officials and sources in the security sector, the PKK held its congress last week and made the decision to disband and lay down arms, Haberler writes. It was decided that this would be publicly announced last weekend, but the announcement was later postponed due to the death of MP Sırrı Sureyya Onder of the pro-Kurdish party HDP. According to security sources, the decisions made by the organization will be announced within a day or two.

The newspaper Türkiye also reported that the AKP and relevant state bodies have prepared a draft program for the steps to be taken in the upcoming process. In connection with this preparation, meetings have also been held between security officials and Ocalan.

AKP representatives have stated that the release of Ocalan from prison on the island of Imralı is not on the agenda, but, according to them, "some administrative steps" are planned, including the appointment of an Imralı officer to assist Ocalan and easing his prison conditions, as well as more frequent meetings with HDP representatives and his family.

The PKK, a Kurdish separatist organization that has waged an armed struggle against the central Turkish government for decades, is classified as a "terrorist" organization by Turkiye, the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. The group has been engaged in an armed conflict with the Turkish state since 1984, in which tens of thousands of people have lost their lives.