PKK Kurds announce dissolution and end of 40 years of armed struggle

Curdistan Workers Party, PKK, announced its dissolution and the end of the 40-year “armed struggle” against the Turkish state on Monday, following an appeal by the founder and leader of the organization, Abdullah Öcalan, made from prison.

“The 12th PKK Congress (Kurdistan Workers Party) has decided to dissolve the PKK organizational structure and end the armed struggle method, whose implementation process will be conducted and carried out by leader APO (Öcalan), thus ending the activities developed under the name of the PKK,” reads a “statement disclosed by the Turkish media, quoted by the international press.

Abdullah Öcalan, in life prison 25 years ago, appealed in late February to PKK, considered a terrorist organization for Turkey, the United States and the European Union, to testify the weapons and put an end to four decades of armed struggle, which left about 45,000 dead.

Following the appeal of its founder, the PKK held a congress, between May 5, which decided to terminate the movement, which considered that its struggle “broke the policy of denial and annihilation imposed on our people, led the curved issue to the point of being resolved through democratic policies and thus fulfilled its historical mission”.