PKK declares ceasefire with Turkey after Abdullah Ocalan's call to disarm

Political and democratic conditions need to be in place for disarmament process to succeed, group says

Demonstrators carry a photograph of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, in Diyarbakir, Turkey. AP

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting in an insurgency in Turkey since 1984, on Saturday unilaterally declared a ceasefire and said it would heed its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan's call to disarm.

Ocalan made a historic call for the group to lay down arms and dissolve itself on Thursday, a move that could reshape one of the longest-running conflicts in the Middle East and have ramifications across the region.

In a statement carried by the PKK-affiliated Firat news agency, the group said it hoped that Turkey would release Ocalan from prison, where he has been held in isolation in 1999, so that he can lead the process of disarmament. The necessary political and democratic conditions need to be in place for the process to succeed, it added.

"We declare a ceasefire effective today to pave the way for the implementation of leader Apo's call for peace and a democratic society," the group said, using the nickname given to Ocalan by his supporters. "None of our forces will take armed action unless attacked."

"A secure environment must be established, and for the success of the congress, leader Apo must personally guide and conduct it."

Disarmament and an effective ceasefire could end the PKK's 40-year insurgency with the Turkish state that has killed tens of thousands of people. The group is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU.

"The efforts for a terror-free Turkey have entered a new phase as of yesterday," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul, in his first comments after Ocalan's call.

"We have the opportunity to take a historic step on the path to the goal of tearing down the wall of terror."

Mr Erdogan endorsed a surprise call in October by the leader of the nationalist MHP party, Devlet Bahceli, for Ocalan to work towards a peace agreement, but has continued to remove Kurdish mayors on terrorism-related charges

A spokesman for his ruling AK Party, Omer Celik, had previously stated that all Kurdish militant groups in Iraq and Syria must lay down their weapons. However, the leader of the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, has said Ocalan's call does not apply to them. Kurdish armed groups in Syria are also under pressure to integrate into the national army being created by the new authorities in Damascus following the overthrow of Bashar Al Assad.

The PKK are now largely confined to the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq, where they are not welcomed by the local Kurdish authorities, and may be left with little option but to disarm.

A political resolution has been close before, when Mr Erdogan, prime minister at the time, and Ocalan almost reached an agreement in 2015. Talks collapsed and a period of bloody fighting followed.