March 1 (UPI) — The militia wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party announced a cease-fire with immediate effect Saturday to halt decades of conflict between Turkey and the Kurds.
The cease-fire announcement comes two days after the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, which uses the acronym PKK, asked the militia to cease hostilities and dissolve the organization, CNN, the BBC and NPR reported.
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan called for the cease-fire while still imprisoned in Turkey.
“I am making a call for the laying down of arms and I take on the historical responsibility of this call,” Ocalan said Thursday in a written statement. “All groups must lay [down] their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself.”
The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has raged for more than 40 years and claimed an estimated 40,000 lives. The conflict also has affected several other nations, including Iraq.
“We agree with the content of leader Ocalan’s call as it is and we state that we will comply with and implement the requirements of the call from our own side,” PKK Executive Committee members announced in a prepared statement. “We declare a cease-fire effective as of today.”
For the cease-fire to work, the PKK Executive Committee said, “Democratic politics and legal grounds must also be appropriate.”
Ocalan formed the PKK in 1978 and went to war with Turkey soon after while trying to establish an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.
Kurds comprise up to 20% of Turkey’s population and account for significant portions of the populations in Syria, Iran and northern Iraq.
Turkish authorities arrested Ocalan in Kenya in 1999, sentenced him to life in prison for treason and only allowed him to have limited contact with others outside of the prison.
Hostilities ramped up quickly in August 1984 when PKK militants killed two Turkish soldiers and mostly have continued since.
A cease-fire was implemented in 2013 but ended two years later at peace talks failed amid rising tensions between the PKK and Turkey.
Ocalan on Thursday said relations between the Kurds and Turkey were broken during the prior 200 years but welcomed an opportunity to end the conflict.
“Today, the main task is to restructure the historical relationship,” Ocalan said.
Peace prospects between Turkey and the PKK appeared grim until recent months, but at least three Turkish delegations have visited Ocalan over the past three months.
Turkish lawmaker Devlet Bahceli invited Ocalan to appear before the Turkish Parliament and announce he has ceased hostilities with the Turkish government.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to run for a third term in 2028, which would require approval from Turkey’s Grand National Assembly.
Turkish law places a term limit of two five-year terms for the nation’s presidency.
For Erdogan to be approved to seek a third term, he needs the support of the Grand National Assembly in which the Kurds have significant representation.
Recent violence between the PKK and Turkish forces could complicate the current cease-fire.
Turkish forces have ramped up efforts to eliminate Kurdish forces and in February suggested new leadership in Syria wipe out the Syrian Democratic Forces that are led by Kurds.
The PKK in October claimed responsibility for an attack that killed five at the headquarters of Turkish Aerospace Industries in Ankara.