Imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his militant group on Thursday to lay down its arms and dissolve as part of a new bid to end a four-decade long conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, Associated Press reports.
In a message from his prison on an island off Istanbul on Thursday, Ocalan said the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, should hold a congress and decide to disband.
“Convene your congress and make a decision. All groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself,” Ocalan said, according to a message that was read in Kurdish and Turkish by pro-Kurdish party politicians who visited Ocalan earlier in the day.
Ocalan’s momentous announcement is part of a new effort for peace between the group and the Turkish state, that was initiated in October by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s coalition partner, Devlet Bahceli. The far-right politician suggested Ocalan could be granted parole if his group renounces violence and disbands.
