ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Abdullah Ocalan, jailed leader of the now-dissolved Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said in a video message published on Wednesday that they are “ending the PKK movement" while urging Turkey's parliament to embark on its legislative role to oversee the peace process post-PKK disarmament. 

“We are ending the PKK movement,” Ocalan said. “The PKK movement based itself on ending the denial of the existence [of Kurds] and establishing a separate state. The strategy of the national liberation war has been completed.”

In a video message dated June 19 and released on Wednesday, Ocalan said the Kurdish existence in Turkey “has been recognised, therefore [the PKK’s] main goal has been achieved.”

Ocalan stated that creating a Turkish parliamentary committee to oversee the peace process is “important.”

"The overall process of voluntary disarmament and the comprehensive commission envisioned to be established... by the Turkish Grand National Assembly (parliament) are crucial. Care and sensitivity are essential," he said.

The PKK announced its historic decision to disband following the militant group's 12th Congress in early May, which responded to Ocalan's call for disarmament and ended a multi-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state.

“On February 27, 2025, I called for Peace and a Democratic Society, and I still support this call,” Ocalan said. “At the PKK’s 12th Congress of dissolution, you responded comprehensively and positively, and I consider this a historic response.”

Releasing Ocalan’s message on Wednesday comes as the PKK is set to begin handing over their weapons on Thursday, corresponding to July 10th, in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani, with the symbolic first disarmament ceremony.

“From July 10 to 12, 25 to 30 PKK fighters in an area of Sulaimani, in a special ceremony, are set to gather weapons, military equipment, and electronic devices, as a sign of serious intention to make the peace process in Turkey,” MP Mehmet Kamac of Turkey's pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) told The New Region earlier this week. 

The disarmed PKK fighters will then be allowed to return to their hideouts in the Qandil mountains. 

"All PKK military equipment will be destroyed and will not fall into the hands of any security forces,” according to a statement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Jailed since 1999, Ocalan said the PKK “based itself on ending the denial of the existence [of Kurds] and establishing a separate state. The strategy of the national liberation war has been completed. Its [Kurdish] existence has been recognized, therefore the [PKK’s] main goal has been achieved.” 

“From all that has been said, the conclusion is that the PKK has abandoned the goal of establishing a nation-state, and with it, it has also abandoned the strategy of war,” Ocalan said.