Outlawed Kurdish militants on Saturday declared a ceasefire with Turkey following a landmark call by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan asking the group to disband and end more than four decades of armed struggle.
It was the first reaction from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) after Ocalan this week called for the dissolution of the group and asked it to lay down arms.
“In order to pave the way for the implementation of leader Apo’s call for peace and democratic society, we are declaring a ceasefire effective from today,” the PKK executive committee said referring to Ocalan and quoted by the pro-PKK ANF news agency.
“We agree with the content of the call as it is and we say that we will follow and implement it,” the committee based in northern Iraq said.
“None of our forces will take armed action unless attacked,” it added.