“The PKK’s 12th Congress decided to dissolve the PKK’s organizational structure and end the armed struggle method, with the practical process to be managed and carried out by Leader Apo [Abdullah Ocalan], and end the work carried out under the PKK name,” PKK-affiliated Firat news agency cited a statement from the group as saying.
The PKK on Friday said it had held a congress from May 5 to May 7 to consider a call from its jailed leader Ocalan to lay down arms, dissolve the party, and pursue a political struggle.
The congress, held simultaneously in two different areas with 232 delegates present, also declared that the PKK has “completed its historical mission” by “breaking the policy of denial and annihilation on our people and bringing the Kurdish issue to a point of solving it through democratic politics,” according to the statement.
“We have full faith that our people will understand the decision to dissolve the PKK and end the armed struggle method better than anyone else, and that they will embrace the duties of the democratic struggle period on the basis of building a democratic society,” the PKK added.
It called on the Turkish parliament and political parties to “play their role with historic responsibility” to allow Ocalan to lead the process toward a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish cause.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which has played a role in bringing the PKK and Ankara together and has made multiple visits to Ocalan, welcomed the congress.
“A new page is opening on the path to honorable peace and a democratic solution. As the DEM Party, after this historic turning point, we believe in the necessity for all democratic political institutions, especially the Turkish Grand National Assembly [parliament], to take responsibility for the solution of the Kurdish issue and the true democratization of Turkey,” the party said on Friday.
The PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire at the start of March while it considered Ocalan’s call for peace.
Turkish officials have publicly continued their hardline stance on the PKK. On Friday, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that disarmament alone is “not enough,” and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey is determined to rid itself of the “scourge of terror.”
The PKK was founded in 1978 in response to the oppression of the Kurdish population in Turkey. It initially struggled for an independent Kurdistan but now calls for greater political and cultural rights within Turkey. Ankara and its Western allies consider the group a terrorist organization.
A similar peace process begun between the PKK and the Turkish state in 2013 collapsed two and a half years later.
