Kurdish group PKK declares ceasefire with Turkey

Ocalan – affectionately referred to as Apo by Kurdish nationalists – met MPs from a pro-Kurdish party this week on Imrali, an island in the Sea of Marmara, south-west of Istanbul, where he is imprisoned.

“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 in a statement on Saturday, quoted by the pro-PKK ANF news agency.

“None of our forces will take armed action unless attacked,” it added.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said later on Saturday that military operations would resume against the PKK if “promises given [by the group] are not kept” and the disarmament process stalled.

The PKK said Ocalan’s prison conditions must be eased, adding he “must be able to live and work in physical freedom and be able to establish unhindered relationships with anyone he wants, including his friends”.

Calling for disarmament, Ocalan had appealed to members of the PKK in a letter read out by Dem party members Ahmet Turk and Pervin Buldan in both Kurdish and Turkish.

He said “all groups must lay down their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself”, adding that his movement was formed primarily because “the channels of democratic politics were closed”.

However, Bahceli, backed by positive signals from Erdogan and other political parties, had created the right environment for the PKK to lay down its arms, Ocalan added.

Kurdish leaders largely welcomed the development. Local reports said thousands of people gathered to watch the statement on big screens in the cities of Diyarbakir and Van in the predominantly Kurdish south-east.