PKK Announces Historic End

The Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, has announced its dissolution and the end of more than four decades of armed struggle against the Turkish state, according to the pro-Kurdish news agency ANF, CE Report quotes ANSA.

"The 12th PKK Congress has decided to dissolve the PKK's organizational structure and end its armed struggle," the Kurdish armed group stated in a declaration, following an earlier announcement that it held its congress last week.

"The practical process (for ending the armed struggle and dissolution) will be managed and implemented by leader Apo," the statement reads, referring to the name by which Abdullah Öcalan is known.

Öcalan, the founder and leader of the PKK, has been imprisoned since 1999 on the island prison of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara, south of Istanbul, and is serving a life sentence.