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Kurdish militant group PKK announces disbandment
The Straits Times
|May 13, 2025
Party heeds jailed leader's call, saying it is ending armed struggle against Turkish state
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ISTANBUL - The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) announced on May 12 its dissolution, saying it was ending its armed struggle against the Turkish state and drawing a line under its bloody four-decade insurgency.
"The 12th PKK Congress has decided to dissolve the PKK's organisational structure and end its method of armed struggle," the group announced in a statement published by the pro-Kurdish ANF news agency.
The move was welcomed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP party as an "important step".
The historic announcement came after an appeal by PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, who on Feb 27 urged his fighters to disarm and disband in a letter from Istanbul's Imrali prison island, where he has been held since 1999.
He also asked the PKK to hold a congress to formalise the decision, with the party holding its congress early last week in Iraq's Qandil mountains.
This story is from the May 13, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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