The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU, and the United States, has announced a truce with Turkey.

This was reported by the Hurriyet newspaper.

On February 27, Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison, called on his supporters to lay down their arms and stop fighting.

The PKK Executive Committee supported this call.

“We agree with the content of the statement and declare that we will comply with its requirements. We declare a ceasefire effective from today,” they said in an official statement. At the same time, they stated that democratic policies and legal frameworks must also be suitable for success.

Kurds

The Kurds are the biggest ethnic group in the world without a state of their own. After the First World War, they had a chance for statehood: in 1920, the Western Allies envisioned the possibility of creating Kurdistan. However, in 1923, this idea was abandoned, creating the Republic of Turkey, which included part of the Kurdish territories.

Other Kurdish lands ended up in Syria, Iran and Iraq (where the Kurds have an autonomous region). The total number of Kurds in the world, according to various estimates, is about 40 million people, of whom about 15 million live in Turkey, which is about 20% of the country’s population.

In 1978, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party was founded as a Marxist-Leninist underground group. In 1984, it launched a separatist uprising in southeastern Turkey. The group consists mainly of Turkish Kurds, whose initial goal was to create an independent Kurdish state in these territories.

In the late 1990s, the PKK moved from armed struggle in rural areas to terrorist attacks in cities. In particular, in October 2024, the members of the PKK carried out a terrorist attack against the defense industry company Turkish Aerospace Industries by attacking one of its enterprises.

If peace talks take place, it will be a turning point for Turkey and a major political success for Turkish President Recep Erdogan. It will eliminate the main threat to Turkey’s internal security and increase Erdogan’s chances of amending the constitution, which will allow him to run for a third term.

This is not the first attempt at a peaceful settlement. At the beginning of Erdogan’s rule, his policy was aimed at improving relations with national minorities, particularly the Kurds. He met with their political leaders and facilitated a truce between Turkey and the PKK that lasted only two years (2013-2015).

A new attempt began after Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party leader and Erdogan ally Devlet Bahceli proposed in October 2024 to allow Ocalan to speak in parliament calling for the disarmament of the Kurds.

In December 2024, Ocalan said he was ready to take a “positive step” in response to that proposal.