A protester waves a flag bearing a portrait of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) jailed in Turkey since 1999, during a demonstration calling for his release in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria on Feb. 15, 2025. (Credit: Delil Souleiman/AFP)
The jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdish militant group PKK called on Thursday for the group to lay down its arms and dissolve itself, in a letter read by Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM Party.
"As in the case with any modern community and party whose existence has not been abolished by force, would voluntarily do, convene your congress and make a decision; all groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself," Ocalan was quoted as saying.
The call came four months after Ankara offered an olive branch to the 75-year-old who founded the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has led a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has cost tens of thousands of lives.
His words were read out by a delegation of lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish DEM party who visited him earlier on Thursday.
"I am making a call for the laying down of arms, and I take on the historical responsibility of this call," he said.
Since Ocalan was jailed in 1999, there have been various attempts to end the bloodshed which erupted in 1984 and has cost more than 40,000 lives.
The last round of talks collapsed amid violence in 2015.
After that, there was no contact until October when hardline nationalist MHP leader Devlet Bahceli offered Ocalan a surprise peace gesture if he would reject violence in a move endorsed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In response to Ocalan's announcement, ruling AK Party Deputy Chairman Efkan Ala said Turkey will be "free of its shackles" if the PKK lays down arms and dissolves.
In the first response from President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, Ala said the government expected the PKK to comply with Ocalan's call.
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