site.btaUPDATED Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Announces Its Disbandment

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization, has announced its disbandment, bringing an end to its armed struggle against Turkish authorities, TRT Haber reported. 

According to an official announcement made during its 12th congress, held from May 5 to 7, the PKK has made a final decision to disband itself. The armed struggle is over, arms have been laid down, the congress decision stated.

The PKK is an armed group founded by Abdullah Ocalan in 1978 in southeastern Turkiye. It is based on Marxist-Leninist ideology. Following the 1980 military coup in Turkiye, Ocalan fled to neighboring Syria. Four years later, he began an armed struggle against Ankara. In 1998, Damascus withdrew its support for Ocalan because of a threat of war with Turkiye. The authorities shut down PKK camps and expelled the movement's leader from the country. Ocalan was arrested in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in early 1999 and returned to Turkiye, where he was sentenced to death for treason and terrorism. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, and Ocalan was imprisoned on the island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara.

In October 2024, Nationalist Movement Party leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's key political ally Devlet Bahceli sent shockwaves across Ankara by suggesting that Ocalan could be released if he declared an end to his group's armed struggle. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) backed the proposal. Then, the pro-Kurdish DEM party, which has been advocating for greater Kurdish rights and autonomy, initiated talks with Ocalan in Imrali prison. 

The meetings between DEM and Ocalan culminated in a historic declaration by the Kurdish rebel leader on February 27, in which he called for the PKK to dissolve and for its fighters to end their armed struggle that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.