Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), appeared in a rare online video on Wednesday (July 9) to say the group's armed struggle against Turkey has ended, and he called for a full shift to democratic politics, Reuters reports.
In the recording, released on July 9th by Firat News Agency, which is close to the PKK, Ocalan urged Turkey's parliament to set up a commission to oversee disarmament and manage a broader peace process.
The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state for 40 years and is labelled a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the EU, decided in May to disband after an initial written appeal from Ocalan in February.
Ocalan, seated in a beige polo shirt with a glass of water on the table in front of him, appeared to read from a script in the seven-minute video. He was surrounded by six other jailed PKK members all looking straight at the camera.
He said the PKK had ended its separatist agenda.
