PKK Announces Disbandment, Ending Four-Decade Armed Struggle Against Turkish State

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a violent insurgency against the Turkish government for more than 40 years, announced Monday that it is disbanding and bringing its armed struggle to an end, according to Firat, a news agency closely aligned with the group, as per Reuters.

The decision, revealed in what Firat described as the PKK’s closing declaration from a congress held last week in northern Iraq, is expected to have major political and security ramifications across the region — including in Iraq and Syria, where Kurdish forces have played key military and geopolitical roles.

“The PKK has completed its historic mission,” the group stated, declaring the dissolution of its organizational structure. The congress reportedly came in response to a February call from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, known by followers as “Leader Apo,” urging an end to the armed campaign.

“The PKK 12th Congress decided to dissolve the PKK’s organizational structure, with the practical process to be managed and carried out by Leader Apo, and to end the armed struggle method,” the statement read. The group also claimed that its decades-long campaign had “broken the policy of denial and annihilation” of Kurdish identity in Turkey and opened the door for democratic political solutions.

The PKK’s insurgency, which began in 1984, has claimed over 40,000 lives and has long been designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union. The conflict has also contributed to instability in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast and complicated regional dynamics in Iraq and Syria.

The announcement marks a historic turning point and could give Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan an opening to accelerate development in Kurdish-majority areas that have suffered economically due to the prolonged conflict.

Omer Çelik, spokesperson for Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), welcomed the news, calling it “an important step toward a terror-free Turkey.”

Turkey’s foreign ministry has yet to issue an official statement, although reports suggest that Ankara had anticipated the move.

Markets appeared to react positively to the news. Turkey’s main share index rose 2.4% on Monday, while the lira remained stable at 38.7375 against the dollar.

Efforts to negotiate peace with the PKK have faltered in the past, most notably during a 2013–2015 ceasefire that ultimately collapsed.