Latest news with #KurdishIssue
Russia Today
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Kurdish militant group ends 40-year struggle against Türkiye
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has said it will disband and has ended its armed struggle against Türkiye. Ankara welcomed the move as a milestone towards a 'terror-free Türkiye' but said the group must fully implement its decision. The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against Türkiye since 1984 to gain autonomy for Kurds, chose to lay down arms at a party congress in early May, but only announced the decision on Monday. In a statement, it said that the PKK has 'carried the Kurdish issue to a level where it can be solved by democratic politics, and the PKK has completed its mission in that sense.' The move came after a public call in February by PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been confined in a Turkish jail on separatism charges since 1999, urging the group to dissolve and adopt nonviolent methods. At the time, Ocalan sent a letter to party members saying, 'there is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and realization of a political system.' Following the message, the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire. Omer Celik, the spokesman for Türkiye's ruling Justice and Development Party welcomed the decision as 'an important stage in terms of the 'terror-free Türkiye goal'. 'If terrorism is completely ended, the door to a new era will open,' he added, cautioning that 'this decision needs to be implemented in practice and realized in all its dimensions.' Celik also insisted that the dissolution should also apply to 'all branches and extensions of the PKK and its illegal structures.' He was apparently referring to the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara deems an extension of the PKK. The group, which enjoys US backing and mainly operates in Syria, has yet to comment on the PKK decision. Founded in 1978, the PKK launched an armed insurgency against the Turkish state, initially seeking independence and later autonomy and civil rights for Kurds. Ankara sought to suppress the group for decades. The conflict has killed an estimated 40,000 people, many of them civilians, and displaced hundreds of thousands in southeastern Türkiye. The group is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and the EU.
The Guardian
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Kurdish militants PKK to disarm after decades of attacks against Turkey
A Kurdish militant group whose attacks and insurgency against Turkey have spanned more than four decades has declared it will disarm and disband, after a call from its jailed leader earlier this year. The Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) announced the decision to dissolve its guerrilla forces, heeding a watershed announcement from Abdullah Öcalan three months ago. Leaders of the militia group, which is regarded as a terrorist organisation in Turkey, the UK and the US, said their armed insurgency had 'brought the Kurdish issue to the point of resolution through democratic politics, and in this regard the PKK has completed its historical mission.' The announcement that the militia will end decades of fighting will affect forces based near Turkey's borders with Iraq and Iran, as well as allied or splinter groups in north-east Syria. Despite the PKK announcement of a 'new phase', the decision to disarm and dissolve appeared to be unilateral, with few public indications about authorities in Ankara offering dialogue. The decision follows months of outreach to Kurdish political leaders in Turkey by the nationalist politician Devlet Bahçeli, a coalition partner of the president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development party (AKP). Local reports suggest Bahçeli has sought pathways to extend Erdoğan's rule beyond two presidential terms through bolstering support from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) party. The AKP spokesperson Ömer Çelik welcomed the PKK decision with caution. 'If the latest PKK decision is fully implemented, shutting down all of its branches and structures, it will be a turning point,' he said. The PKK leadership called their decision to halt armed struggle 'a solid foundation for lasting peace and a democratic solution' and reiterated calls for Öcalan to be freed in order to oversee the group's dissolution. The Kurdish leader has been held on an island prison off the coast of Istanbul since he was captured by Turkish forces in Kenya in 1999. Founded in 1978, the PKK led an armed insurgency primarily targeting Turkish military infrastructure, seeking greater recognition and independence for Kurdish communities in Turkey's south-east. Amnesty International accused the group of harming rural Kurdish communities due to its activities in the 1990s. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have been killed in the fighting with Turkish forces since the PKK officially began an armed insurgency in 1984, according to the International Crisis Group. The ICG found that in the year that followed the breakdown of the last ceasefire between the PKK and Turkey in 2015, more than 1,700 were killed including civilians, Kurdish fighters and members of the Turkish armed forces. The PKK's decision to disband has further isolated allied Kurdish fighting forces in north-east Syria. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) remain under increasing pressure to integrate into Syria's new military after the collapse of the regime of Bashar al-Assad last year and the withdrawal of hundreds of supporting American troops from areas in the north-east under their control. The SDF commander-in-chief, Mazloum Abdi, signed a deal with the new authorities in Damascus in March to merge SDF-led institutions into those of the fledgling Syrian state. Abdi previously dismissed any suggestion that the PKK's dissolution would affect his forces, saying: 'To be clear, this only concerns the PKK and is nothing related to us here in Syria.'
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kurdish PKK disbands and ends Turkey insurgency
The Kurdistan Workers Party militant group, which has been locked in bloody conflict with the Turkish state for more than four decades, decided to disband and end its armed struggle, a news agency close to the group reported on Monday. The decision is set to have far-reaching political and security consequences for the region, including in neighbouring Iraq and also in Syria, where Kurdish forces are allied with US forces. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK launched its insurgency in 1984. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies. "The PKK has completed its historic mission," the group said on Monday, according to the Firat news agency, which published what it said was the closing declaration of a congress that the PKK held last week in northern Iraq where it is based. The PKK held the congress in response to a call in February from its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan to disband. "The PKK 12th Congress decided to dissolve the PKK'S organisational structure, with the practical process to be managed and carried out by Leader Apo, and to end the armed struggle method," the statement said, using Ocalan's nickname. "The PKK struggle has broken the policy of denial and annihilation of our people and brought the Kurdish issue to a point of solving it through democratic politics." The PKK's decision will give President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the opportunity to boost development in the mainly Kurdish southeast, where the insurgency has handicapped the regional economy for decades. Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's ruling AK Party, said the PKK's decision to dissolve was an "an important step toward a terror-free Turkey". Turkey's foreign ministry did not immediately comment on the announcement, which Ankara had been expecting. There have been intermittent peace efforts over the years, most notably a ceasefire between 2013 and 2015 that ultimately collapsed.
