The Kurdish guerrilla group that has been preventing a long-running insurgency towards Turkey declared a cease-fire on Saturday, days after a name from its jailed chief to disarm and disband the group raised hopes of ending a battle that has killed tens of 1000’s of individuals over 4 a long time.
The Kurdistan Employees’ Celebration, or P.Ok.Ok., mentioned the cease-fire would start instantly. However it additionally known as for Abdullah Ocalan, the P.Ok.Ok.’s founder and chief who has been in a Turkish jail for a quarter-century, to be freed so he can oversee the group’s dissolution.
If the P.Ok.Ok. does disband, it could resolve a serious home safety risk and mark a political victory for Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. If negotiations proceed with Mr. Ocalan, it might usher in a brand new period of peace throughout the area the place Kurds have pursued an armed wrestle in a mountainous space that intersects elements of Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
However there are nonetheless many unanswered questions.
“That is simply the primary sentence,” Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow on the Brookings Establishment, mentioned of Mr. Ocalan’s name to all teams to disarm.
It isn’t clear whether or not Turkey will stop armed operations towards the P.Ok.Ok., who would monitor any truce or what would occur to fighters who do lay down their arms. There may be additionally the query of whether or not the federal government has provided the Kurdish fighters something in return.
However a cease-fire would permit Kurds to begin inside consultations and maintain native congresses to forge a democratic means ahead, one thing Kurds in Turkey and Syria have mentioned they need to do.
The P.Ok.Ok. announcement got here two days after Mr. Ocalan said that the group had outlived its life-span and will dissolve itself, a uncommon message from a frontrunner with broad affect over Kurdish fighters in Turkey, but in addition across the area, together with in Syria and Iraq.
The P.Ok.Ok. assertion, carried by Firat Information Company, a P.Ok.Ok.-linked information web site, mentioned “none of our forces will take armed motion except attacked.”
In recent times, Turkey’s army has degraded the P.Ok.Ok.’s preventing talents, which analysts say could have contributed to its willingness to debate an finish to its combat.
Fighters of the P.Ok.Ok. revere their chief, Mr. Ocalan, and are anticipated to heed his name, however the group’s conditional assertion suggests it is going to proceed to make use of its leverage within the bargaining course of.
“For these kind of organizations, cease-fires are a method to purchase time, overcome army setbacks and easy over cracks amongst members,” mentioned Oytun Orhan, an analyst on the Heart for Center Japanese Research based mostly within the Turkish capital, Ankara.
The Turkish authorities didn’t instantly touch upon the P.Ok.Ok. assertion or on the group’s name for Mr. Ocalan to be launched.
However on Friday, Mr. Erdogan welcomed the attraction by Mr. Ocalan, which got here after a sequence of talks that included Turkish officers; Mr. Ocalan himself; and members of Turkey’s primary pro-Kurdish social gathering, the Folks’s Equality and Democracy Celebration, or D.E.M.
“Now we have a historic alternative to take a step towards demolishing the wall of terror” between Turks and Kurds, he mentioned. He added that Turkish officers would observe up on working to finish the battle, with out elaborating on what that might entail.
Mr. Erdogan mentioned in January that the federal government had provided the P.Ok.Ok. no concessions.
The P.Ok.Ok. started as a secessionist group that sought to create an unbiased state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority, however extra lately it has mentioned it was in search of higher rights for Kurds inside Turkey.
Turkey, america and different international locations classify Mr. Ocalan as a terrorist and the P.Ok.Ok. as terror group for its assaults which have killed Turkish safety forces and civilians. Many Turks see Mr. Ocalan, who was convicted in 1999 of main an armed terrorist group, as one of many nation’s greatest enemies.
Turkey and the P.Ok.Ok. have tried over time to resolve the battle, most lately by way of peace talks that began in 2011. Negotiations broke down in 2015, ushering in a lethal new part.
However final October, a strong political ally of Mr. Erdogan made a surprising public call to Mr. Ocalan, asking him to inform his fighters to put down their arms and finish the battle. Doing so, the politician mentioned, might open a pathway for his life sentence to be ended.
