The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) announced a cease-fire with Turkey on Saturday in response to a call from her leader and founder Abdullah Öcalan. This can be read in a statement from the PKK Executive Committee published by the Anf Agency, which is close to the armed party.
“To clear the way for the implementation of APO’s call for peace and a democratic society, we will announce a cease-fire from today,” it sounds. “We agree with the content of the call as he is and we declare that we will respect and implement it,” you can read in a long text in Turkish. The party adds that it will only respect the ceasefire if its units are not attacked.
The PKK demands freedom for its founder, who has been imprisoned for 26 years off the coast of Istanbul. “The leader Abdullah Öcalan must be able to live and work in full physical freedom and be able to enter into unhindered relationships with whoever he wants, including his friends,” said the PKK. “The call is not an end but a new start,” the statement is closed.
The 75-year-old Öcalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, had called on his supporters on Thursday to strike the fight against Turkey. In a statement announced as “historically”, he also said that the PKK should dismantle itself. The PKK has been fighting an armed battle in eastern Turkey since the 1980s. More than 40,000 people were killed. The Kurdish movement, which strives for far -reaching autonomy, is on the list of terror organizations in both Turkey and the US.