ISTANBUL, March 1, (V7N) – The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) announced a ceasefire with Turkey on Saturday, following a historic call from jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan urging the group to disband.

The PKK executive committee confirmed the ceasefire in a statement to the pro-PKK ANF news agency, saying:

"To pave the way for the implementation of leader Apo's call for peace and democratic society, we are declaring a ceasefire effective from today."

Referring to Ocalan—also known as "Apo"—the PKK leadership added:

"We agree with the content of the call as it is and we say that we will follow and implement it."

The PKK, which has fought an armed insurgency against Turkey since 1984, is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union. The conflict has cost over 40,000 lives, with Kurds making up around 20% of Turkey’s 85 million population.

Ocalan, imprisoned since 1999, has periodically engaged in peace talks, but the last official negotiations collapsed in 2015.

The latest peace efforts began in October 2024, when a hardline nationalist ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made an unexpected peace overture—on the condition that Ocalan renounces violence.

Erdogan supported the initiative, but his government intensified crackdowns on opposition groups, arresting hundreds of politicians, activists, and journalists.

After several high-level meetings with Ocalan in his island prison, the pro-Kurdish DEM party relayed his message on Thursday, urging the PKK to lay down arms and dissolve the organization.

With the ceasefire now in effect, the focus shifts to whether the PKK will fully disband and how Turkey’s government will respond in the coming weeks.