The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has announced that it held the congress this week called for by jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan, at which the militant group would lay down its arms and disband, and will soon announce the “historic” decisions made at the event, the Fırat News Agency (ANF) reported on Friday.
The PKK said in its statement that it held its 12th congress from May 5 to 7 on “Media Defense Zones” based on a landmark call from Öcalan on February 27, which he made as a result of peace talks conducted with him in a bid to end the decades-long armed conflict between Turkey and the PKK.
Media Defense Zones is a term used by the PKK to refer to the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq where its bases are located.
The militant group said it evaluated Öcalan’s perspectives and proposals and would soon share the congress outcomes once they are consolidated from different regions.
“We have taken decisions of historic importance,” the PKK statement said, adding that comprehensive documentation and conclusions from the congress would be made public “very soon.”
The group also renewed demands for Öcalan’s release from prison, where he has been held since 1999, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole on İmralı Island on the Sea of Marmara.
The peace talks were initiated by a surprise call from Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, when he offered Öcalan an unexpected peace gesture in October if he would reject violence, in a move endorsed by Erdoğan.
Following Öcalan’s call, the PKK executive committee issued a statement on March 1 affirming Öcalan’s leadership and declaring a ceasefire. The group said its armed units would refrain from any operations unless attacked.
The PKK’s statement on Friday comes one day after President Erdoğan announced that the PKK’s announcement of its laying down of arms was imminent.
He told a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) at its headquarters in Ankara that “all obstacles” to resolving the decades-old conflict with the PKK had been lifted, adding, “Today or tomorrow, the PKK will disarm and dissolve itself. After that, a new process will begin, a new period for all of us. Politics will have a major role to play.”
If confirmed, the PKK’s laying down of its arms will mark the most significant breakthrough in Turkey’s Kurdish conflict in decades. The PKK launched its insurgency in 1984, demanding greater autonomy and rights for Turkey’s Kurdish population. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
The group is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
This is not the first attempt at peace. A previous process between 2013 and 2015, also involving Öcalan, collapsed amid political tensions, renewed violence and Turkey’s growing involvement in Syria. Since a coup attempt in 2016, Turkish authorities have carried out sweeping purges of Kurdish political actors and intensified military operations in the country’s southeast.
Before the launch of the peace talks, Öcalan, 75, had had severely limited contact with the outside world and was last allowed to meet with his lawyers in 2019.