Kurdistan Workers’ Party Declares Its Dissolution

The separatist organization Kurdistan Workers’ Party has announced its self-dissolution after more than 40 years of existence.

AP reported on this.

In February, the imprisoned leader of the organization called for the group’s disbandment and disarmament, and on March 1, 2025, it declared a ceasefire with Türkiye.

This became part of a new peace initiative with Türkiye aimed at ending the armed conflict that has lasted for over 40 years.

According to Kurdish media, the announcement followed a party congress held in northern Iraq a few days earlier. It was there that the decision to finish hostilities was officially approved.

This move could bring an end to one of the longest-running conflicts in the Middle East and is expected to have a significant impact on the situation in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. The conflict between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party has been ongoing since the 1980s and, according to various estimates, has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

In February, Kurdistan Workers’ Party leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999 on İmralı Island near Istanbul, called on his organization to hold a congress and consider the possibility of self-dissolution. This appeal is seen as a decisive factor in the party’s change of course.

It is worth recalling that Turkey, the United States, the European Union, and several other countries have designated the Kurdistan Workers’ Party as a terrorist organization. Over the past decades, the conflict between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and Türkiye has also spread to northern Syria and Iraq.

The original goal of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party was to establish an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Türkiye. In the early 1990s, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party shifted from rural guerrilla warfare to carrying out terrorist activities in urban areas.

According to the U.S. government website Rewards for Justice, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party ceased violent activities from 1999 to June 2004, until its radical military wing gained control and rejected the previously declared commitment to a ceasefire.

In 2009, the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party resumed peace talks. However, the dialogue failed when the Kurdistan Workers’ Party carried out a terrorist attack in July 2011, resulting in the deaths of 13 Turkish soldiers.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party and Turkish forces engaged in repeated clashes during 2011–2012, including a terrorist attack in October 2011 that killed 24 Turkish soldiers — the deadliest such attack since 1993. In 2018, multiple terrorist attacks by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party against Turkish security forces were reported, including an assault on a Turkish military base in November, which resulted in dozens of casualties and was claimed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.