Kurdish PKK disbands and ends Turkiye insurgency, PKK-linked agency says

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant-political group, which has been locked in bloody conflict with the Turkish state for more than four decades, decided to disband and end its armed struggle, Reuters reported citing a statement released by the group.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK launched its insurgency in 1984. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.

"The PKK has completed its historic mission," the group said, according to the Firat news agency, which published what it said was the closing declaration of a congress that the PKK held last week in northern Iraq where it is based.

The PKK held the congress in response to a call in February from its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan to disband.

"The PKK 12th Congress decided to dissolve the PKK'S organizational structure, with the practical process to be managed and carried out by Leader Apo, and to end the armed struggle method," the statement said, using Ocalan's nickname.

"The PKK struggle has broken the policy of denial and annihilation of our people and brought the Kurdish issue to a point of solving it through democratic politics," the statement said.