The PKK announced on May 12 that it was dissolving itself, bringing an end to its more than four-decade armed insurgency. The move came after a new peace initiative launched by the ruling coalition in October and a public call from imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan urging the group to disband.

While the PKK’s announcement that it would heed Ocalan’s call and disarm was welcomed by SDF leader Mazloum Abdi, he said his group would not disarm and Ocalan’s decision did not extend to Syria. But this could give the group further incentives to bring its fighting force and governing structure – called the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) – under the umbrella of the new government in Damascus.

Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), has welcomed the group's decision to dissolve itself in line with his appeal in February.

This week’s disbanding of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) could see its ailing 77-year-old founder Abdullah Ocalan, who has been in jail for 26 years, “get house arrest in the sunny Turkish Riviera”,

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is an icon to many Kurds but a "terrorist" to many within wider Turkish society. After a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that resulted in tens of ...

In a message released on Tuesday, Ocalan conveyed his respect and approval of the congress, held from Nov. 5 to 7, and paid tribute to senior PKK figures Ali Haydar Kaytan and Riza Altun, whose deaths were announced recently.

A top official says Turkey is closely monitoring any attempts to undermine its peace initiative with the PKK following the militant Kurdish group’s announcement that it is ending its decades-long armed conflict with the Turkish state.

To fully disarm, we must also trust the state," said Murat Karayılan, a senior member of the militant group that declared its disbanding.