The Kurdish PKK militant group says it will dissolve and end the turkey conflict

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The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the militant group that has been in conflict with the Turkish state for more than 40 years, said that it would dissolve in a historical movement with significant political and security implications for the region.

It Pkk He decided to “end the armed struggle”, according to the Pro-Kurd Anf news agency, which published on Monday the closing statement of a PKK congress held in Iraq last week. The group had it declared the cessation of fire March 1.

The PKK, which is designated by a Turkey terrorist group and its western allies, has been related to Kurdish forces with support of the United States in Syria. Their decision could relieve tensions between Turkey and the US on the arrangement of power sharing in Syria.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK launched its insurgency in 1984.

The peace process, if successful, could promote domestic political support to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as it seeks to expand his two decades rule for another mandate, beyond the presidential election currently planned for 2028.

Congress said in its statement that the PKK struggle had “brought the Kurdish question to the point of resolution through democratic politics, thus completing its historical mission.”

Ömer Çelik, spokesman for the governing party AK, called the movement an “important step in terms of the target of a” turkey without terror “. He added in a Posting on social media That “if terrorism completes completely, the door of a new age will open.”

The process gained momentum in February, when PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged the group to call and formally decide to dissolve.

The peace process has been nationally supported by the nationalist politician of a great right, Devlet Bahçeli, a narrow ally Erdoğan.

Since then, negotiations have been made behind a secret wall, and it is not yet clear how the process will be proceeded, including the way the weapons will be arranged, which would supervise the process, the fate of the PKK militants and if the group leaders could receive a sanctuary in third countries.

No concession has been revealed that the PKK can get in exchange for its decision to dissolve. There is also the broadest question of what the Kurds of Political Rights could win, which constitute almost one fifth of the population of Turkey.

The Dem Pro-Kurdish Party, the third largest in Turkey, has called for the recognition of Kurdish identity and culture in the constitution of the country, teaching the Kurdish language in schools, and the return of powers to local authorities of the Kurdish majority of Turkey in the southeast.

Multiple previous peace efforts have ended with failure, more recently in 2015. But this decision is in a context of significant changes in both Turkey and the broadest region.

The Turkish military had directed a drone -led effective insurgency, which pushed the militants out of the country and to Iraq and Syria. The demolition of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has since launched the position of the Kurdish forces with a Kurdish team who had fought against him in northeastern Syria.