PKK Announces Ceasefire with Turkey After Decades of Conflict
-
Hashim Sheikh
- . March 2, 2025
- . Update: March 1, 2025 8:37 pm
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has announced a ceasefire with Turkey in answer to a call from the imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, to surrender arms and disband the organization. The declaration is a dramatic move toward ending a long struggle begun in 1984, during which the PKK has been waging a war for Kurdish rights and self-government inside Turkey. The ceasefire took place immediately and the PKK undertook to suspend all hostilities short of provocation.
Ocalan’s disarmament call has been echoed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government as well as the opposition pro-Kurdish DEM party. The PKK has consented to holding a congress to discuss dissolution, but this can only occur if Ocalan is given greater freedom and the required political conditions are met.
The armed rebellion of the PKK has cost more than 40,000 lives. The activities of the group in northern Iraq have also strained relations between Turkey and Iraq. A successful ceasefire would usher in peace and development in southeast Turkey, an area hard hit by the insurgency. However, The PKK has insisted that Ocalan has to directly lead the process and his conditions in prison have to be improved for this peace process to succeed.
The U.S., EU and Turkey’s neighbors such as Iraq and Iran, have received the news positively, viewing it as a good move towards regional stability.
