[News] Kurdish PKK group to disband, ending 40-year armed struggle with Türkiye

Fri May 16 13:00:09 EDT 2025

peoplesdispatch.org
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/05/16/kurdish-pkk-group-to-disband-ending-40-year-armed-struggle-with-turkiye/>
Kurdish PKK group to disband, ending 40-year armed struggle with Türkiye May
16, 2025
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/05/16/kurdish-pkk-group-to-disband-ending-40-year-armed-struggle-with-turkiye/>
by
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/05/16/kurdish-pkk-group-to-disband-ending-40-year-armed-struggle-with-turkiye/>Aseel
Saleh <https://peoplesdispatch.org/author/aseel-saleh/>
------------------------------
[image: Kurdish_PKK_Guerillas_23131489879.jpeg]

Kurdish PKK member. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced Monday, May 12, that it
decided to disband and end its armed struggle with the Turkish state, which
lasted over 40 years.

The announcement comes a couple of months after PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah
Öcalan
<https://apnews.com/article/turkey-pkk-ocalan-peace-talks-68decd55c35fa537f04b117bc9736128>,
issued a statement from prison titled “Call for Peace and a Democratic
Society,” in which he asked the group to lay down arms and dissolve itself.

According to *The Firat News Agency* (ANF), affiliated with the PKK, Öcalan
took a “historic step” with his call, as he “placed change and
transformation” at the forefront of the group’s agenda.

The PKK was founded by Abdullah Öcalan in Türkiye in 1978, with the mission
of creating an independent state for the Kurdish population. The party’s
objective shifted at a later stage to seeking autonomy and greater rights
for the Kurds in Türkiye.

The Kurds, whose population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million
<https://oxfordpoliticalreview.com/2024/09/05/censor-the-language-curtail-the-people-an-analysis-of-kurdish-linguistic-erasure-across-the-nation-states-on-kurdish-land/>,
have for centuries inhabited large parts of different countries in West Asia
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kurdistan-Workers-Party>, including
eastern Türkiye, northern Iraq, and western Iran, in addition to smaller
parts of northern Syria and Armenia.

However, their aspirations for self-determination have been confronted with
persecution by the governments of their countries, which pressured them to
accept integration.

In 1984, the PKK began the armed struggle against the Turkish state, which
continued for four decades and claimed 40,000 lives, according to media
reports. The group, which was designated as a “terrorist organization” by
Türkiye, the European Union (EU), and the US, operated
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/5/14/what-does-the-pkks-disarming-mean-for-its-regional-allies>
in Türkiye and northern Iraq, with allies operating in areas inhabited by
Kurds in Syria and Iran.
*Abdullah Öcalan from armed struggle to reconciliation*

Abdullah Öcalan fled to Syria
<https://www.turkiyetoday.com/turkiye/pkk-ringleader-abdullah-ocalan-why-hes-known-as-baby-killer-in-turkiye-124755>
in 1979, alongside a number of PKK members, in the wake of political unrest
in Türkiye, one year after the party was founded.

During the 1980s and 1990s, then-Syrian president Hafez al-Assad allowed
the PKK to establish bases and training camps in Syria and the Bekaa Valley
in Lebanon, which was under Syria’s control at the time.

Due to geopolitical pressures, Hafez al-Assad asked Öcalan to leave Syria
in 1998. One year later, the PKK leader was arrested
<https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20241231-ocalan-pkk-chief-held-in-solitary-on-turkish-prison-island>
by an operative of the Turkish security forces in Kenya.

Öcalan was initially sentenced to death on charges of “treason and
separatism”, but the sentence changed to life in prison after Türkiye abolished
capital punishment in 2004 in a bid to become a member of the EU.

Despite his imprisonment, Öcalan continued to wield considerable clout over
his party, and he is still seen by the Kurds as a popular influential
figure.
*Regional factors that led to the dissolution decision*

Analysts suggest that recent geopolitical developments contributed to PKK’s
decision to disband and disarm. After former Syrian president Bashar
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/12/11/the-fall-of-the-assad-government-in-syria/>al-Assad
was overthrown in December 2024, *Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham* (HTS), which is
backed by Türkiye, took over the country. This, in turn, made PKK more
vulnerable to attacks by the Turkish forces and their allies in Syria.

The situation became harder for the party after the Kurdish-led Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF) signed an agreement
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/03/12/interim-syrian-government-integrates-us-backed-kurdish-forces-in-the-wake-of-fresh-sectarian-violence/>
with Syria’s HTS-led interim government to integrate into the state’s
institutions.

SDF maintains that it is independent from the PKK despite being dominated
by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Türkiye views as a
PKK offshoot.

The last few months also saw an advancement in the relations between Türkiye
and Iraq, particularly in terms of security cooperation. In a meeting
between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iraqi Prime
Minister Mohammed
Shia al-Sudani
<https://syriacpress.com/blog/2025/05/09/turkey-and-iraq-deepen-ties-with-landmark-agreements-and-regional-dialogue/>
in Türkiye’s capital, Ankara, earlier in May, Al-Sudani reiterated “Iraq’s
firm stance” against allowing its territory to be used in the conflict
between Türkiye and PKK.

In October, 2024, the leader of Türkiye’s far-right Nationalist Movement
Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli
<https://www.euronews.com/2024/10/22/hardline-turkish-politician-offers-ocalan-parole-if-pkk-is-disbanded>,
suggested in a statement that Öcalan could be granted parole if “he
renounces violence” and disbands the group.

MHP is perceived as an ally of Erdoğan, who is reportedly seeking support
from Türkiye’s pro-Kurdish political party in parliament to enact a new
constitution that could allow him to run for another presidential term.

Garnering such support has become more possible with PKK’s dissolution
decision, which Erdoğan welcomed
<https://www.turkishminute.com/2025/05/13/erdogan-welcomes-pkk-dissolution-as-key-step-toward-peace/>
on Monday, calling it “an important decision for securing peace and
fraternity” in Türkiye.
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