Kurdish leader Öcalan urges PKK to lay down arms and disband

After a 40-year insurgency against Turkey, Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has called for the dissolution of the group.

In a historic statement read by deputies of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Freedom and Democracy Party (DEM) in Istanbul, Öcalan acknowledged that the PKK’s struggle had “completed its life,” likening it to other similar movements.

He urged members of the banned organization to lay down their arms and disband the group, marking a potential shift in the Kurdish political landscape.