PKK's ceasefire after 40 years marks 'new phase' for peace effort in Turkey

Kurdish militia fighters have declared a ceasefire in their 40-year insurgency against Turkey, after their imprisoned leader called for the group to disarm and dissolve last week.

- Ruth Michaelson

"We are declaring a ceasefire to be effective from today on. None of our forces will take armed action unless attacked," the executive committee of the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) said in a statement.

The announcement followed a call from jailed PKK founding member Abdullah Öcalan signalling a desire to end an armed insurgency that has raged since 1984 across south-eastern Turkey, Syria, northern Iraq and into neighbouring Iran. Öcalan, who is now in his mid-70s, has been imprisoned on an island south of Istanbul since his capture by Turkish security forces in Kenya in 1999.