Kurdish militants carrying flags with a portrait of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan during a rally in Istanbul in March 2024. (Credit: Reuters)
This is a decision hailed as a victory for "the unity of the Turkish nation" by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After more than four decades of armed struggle against the Turkish state and tens of thousands of deaths, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) officially announced on Monday, May 12, the dissolution of the group and the end of its armed actions. "The PKK has fulfilled its historical mission of bringing the Kurdish question to a stage where it can be resolved through democratic means," read the group's statement, published after a congress held last week in the mountains of Kandil, northern Iraq. And while both parties claim that the dissolution of the PKK was not negotiated, it resulted from several months of mediation, launched in October 2024, between Ankara and the imprisoned Kurdish group leader...
This is a decision hailed as a victory for "the unity of the Turkish nation" by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After more than four decades of armed struggle against the Turkish state and tens of thousands of deaths, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) officially announced on Monday, May 12, the dissolution of the group and the end of its armed actions. "The PKK has fulfilled its historical mission of bringing the Kurdish question to a stage where it can be resolved through democratic means," read the group's statement, published after a congress held last week in the mountains of Kandil, northern Iraq. And while both parties claim that the dissolution of the PKK was not negotiated, it resulted from several months of mediation, launched in October 2024, between Ankara and the imprisoned Kurdish group leader...
