ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) declared on Saturday a ceasefire with Turkey two days after jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan called on the group to disarm and dissolve itself in a historic address.

“As the PKK, we agree with the content of the call and state from our side that we will comply with and implement the requirements of the call. However, we would like to underline that democratic politics and legal grounds must also be suitable for success,” read a statement released by the PKK on Saturday morning regarding Ocalan’s call.

“We are declaring a ceasefire effective today in order to pave the way for the realization of Leader Apo's [Ocalan's] Call for Peace and Democratic Society. None of our forces will take armed action unless there is an attack on them,” the statement added.

Abdullah Ocalan, 75,  jailed leader and founder of the PKK on Thursday called on his party to lay down arms against the Turkish state and dissolve itself in a historic declaration from Imrali Prison, where he has been held for 26 years.

A day after Ocalan’s call, Turkish state media quoted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying “a new phase has begun in the efforts for a terror-free.” 

“It is our primary duty towards our nation to establish and strengthen an all-encompassing and inclusive climate in our country, where no one feels like they are the other,” Erdogan added.

Top PKK Commander Murat Karayilan earlier in February expressed concern over the possibility of laying down arms by the group’s fighters in an interview with the PKK-affiliated Sterk TV.

Karayilan said “these are ideologic fighters, as in they are believers,” calling Ocalan by his nickname Apo, Kurdish for uncle, Karayilan added “unless the person who created those ideologies, as in leader Apo himself… meets the fighters, a recorded video call alone does not work.”

In October, Devlet Bahceli, head of the far-right Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), in a major move proposed allowing Ocalan to appear before the legislature and declare the dissolution of the PKK, an initiative immediately endorsed by Erdogan and the Turkish political landscape.  

Headquartered in the Kurdistan Region’s Mount Qandil, the PKK is an armed group that has fought for increased Kurdish rights in Turkey for decades. The group is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, Europe, and the US. 

Bahceli’s initiative led to DEM Party MPs Pervin Buldan and Sirri Sureyya Onder being granted the rare permission to meet with Ocalan at Imrali prison in December amid a shift in Ankara’s stance of prohibiting contact with the PKK founder.

In 2013, the Turkish government, led by then-prime minister and current President Erdogan, entered a peace process with the PKK aimed at ending the decades of conflict and bloodshed. The truce was short-lived and collapsed in July 2015, leading to violent clashes in Turkey’s southeastern Kurdish areas. 

Millions across Turkey – Turks and Kurds, are now once again looking ahead with renewed hope that a perpetual solution will be found to permanently resolve the conflict that has spanned decades and claimed tens of thousands of lives.