Kurdish PKK group ends armed conflict, disbands

The PKK Kurdish insurgent group on Monday said it was ending hostilities and disbanding after four decades of armed conflict with Turkey. Former PKK members intend to advocate for the rights of the Kurdish ethnic group through democratic means, the group said in a statement to Kurdish media outlet Firat News Agency. The PKK, or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, is designated as a terrorist group in the United States, Turkey, the European Union, and the United Kingdom.

The group’s jailed leader called for it to disband back in February. Abdullah Ocalan has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, the Associated Press reported. The PKK convened its party congress from May 5-7 to decide on Ocalan’s request. Over 200 delegates met in two locations within the PKK-held areas of northern Iraq, according to the Firat News Agency.

Who are the Kurds? The large ethnic group has sizable minorities in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The group was left without a state during the British and French partition of the Middle East. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK began in 1984 and has often carried over into northern Iraq and northern Syria. Around 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died in the fighting, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

What else did the PKK congress say in its final statement? Former members of the group will continue attempts to create an independent Kurdish state, but solely through democratic means. They will expand their mission beyond Kurdish independence to advocate for the rights of all minority and oppressed groups while espousing global socialism. The group said it wants to align with leftist-socialist parties in Turkey.

How did the Turkish government react? President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s chief advisor, Mehmet Uçum, on Monday said the decision made a terror-free Turkey a reality. Turkey is the national state of the Kurds, as they helped found and establish it, he said. The country was ready for more democratic reforms, he said.