A Kurdish militia group that has waged a bloody insurgency in opposition to the Turkish state for 4 many years mentioned on Monday that it will lay down its arms and disband, a call that would reshape Turkish politics and reverberate in neighboring nations.
The announcement by the Kurdistan Employees’ Celebration, recognized by its Kurdish acronym, P.Ok.Ok., got here a number of months after its imprisoned chief, Abdullah Ocalan, urged the group to disarm and disband. In his February message, he mentioned the group’s armed wrestle had outlived its preliminary goal and that additional progress within the wrestle for Kurdish rights might be achieved by politics.
The P.Ok.Ok. started as a secessionist group that sought to create an impartial state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority. Extra lately, it has mentioned that it sought higher rights for Kurds inside Turkey. It’s categorized as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and different nations.
In an announcement on Monday, the group echoed Mr. Ocalan’s name, saying that it had “carried the Kurdish problem to a stage the place it may be solved by democratic politics, and the P.Ok.Ok. has accomplished its mission in that sense.”
A latest congress by the group’s leaders in northern Iraq had determined to finish “actions below the identify of P.Ok.Ok.’’
The group mentioned Mr. Ocalan ought to lead the method of disarming, and it known as on Turkey’s Parliament to participate. The transfer might finish a battle that has claimed greater than 40,000 lives.
It was unclear what would occur subsequent. Mr. Ocalan has been held in close to isolation in a jail on an island within the Sea of Marmara after his seize by Turkish intelligence in 1999. The P.Ok.Ok. and pro-Kurdish politicians have known as for his launch, or no less than for a loosening of the restrictions on him to permit him to supervise the disarmament course of.
Many Kurds in Turkey have additionally expressed hopes that the top of the battle would lead the federal government to formally broaden Kurdish cultural and academic rights, however no new laws on such points seems imminent.
The long conflict, by which P.Ok.Ok. militants bombed civilian areas and the Turkish navy responded with nice drive, has led to pitched battles in Kurdish-majority cities.
Monday’s announcement is a boon for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He can declare to have accomplished what his predecessors did not do, and the P.Ok.Ok.’s dissolution might broaden his help amongst Kurds, which many analysts suspect that he covets in an effort to change the Structure and search a 3rd presidential time period.
Mesut Yegen, an instructional who has written extensively on Kurdish points, mentioned that there’s nonetheless a protracted and troublesome course of forward for Mr. Erdogan. The Turkish chief must push by authorized adjustments on the standing of militants, amongst different issues, he mentioned.
In a social media publish, Omer Celik, a spokesman for Mr. Erdogan’s governing Justice and Growth Celebration, mentioned the P.Ok.Ok.’s announcement was an essential step in Mr. Erdogan’s work to make sure a “terror-free Turkey.”
The P.Ok.Ok.’s declaration might additionally affect different Kurdish militias, notably in Syria, and shift regional dynamics past Turkey’s borders.
The Kurds — an ethnic group of roughly 40 million people — are unfold throughout Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. They had been promised however by no means granted their very own nation by world powers after World Warfare I and have since launched varied rebellions in opposition to governments which have sought to suppress their cultural identification.
In practically each nation the place they dwell, Kurds have confronted state-sponsored suppression of their language and tradition.
Mr. Yegen, the professional on Kurdish points, mentioned that the laying down of arms by the P.Ok.Ok. might have main implications throughout the area, and that “Turkey’s relations with the Kurds in Syria and Iraq might be based mostly on cooperation, slightly than battle.”
He added: “It’s clear that the door for a large change has been opened.”
It was not instantly clear how the choice would have an effect on the P.Ok.Ok. bases hidden within the mountainous areas of Iraq’s northern Kurdish area. Turkey has repeatedly bombarded P.Ok.Ok. strongholds in northern Iraq, in addition to the group’s offshoot controlling the northeastern areas of Syria, branding them a terrorist menace close to its borders.
Turkish officers have mentioned publicly that the federal government provided no concessions to the P.Ok.Ok. to influence it to disarm. However officers from Turkey’s foremost pro-Kurdish social gathering have expressed hope that the federal government would broaden cultural and academic rights for Kurds.
Safak Timur contributed reporting.
