Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), appeared in a rare online video on Wednesday to declare the group’s armed struggle against Turkey over and called for a full transition to democratic politics, Reuters reports.
In the recording, dated June and released by Firat News Agency, which is close to the PKK, Ocalan urged Turkey’s parliament to set up a commission to oversee disarmament and manage a broader peace process.
“The phase of armed struggle has ended. This is not a loss, but a historic gain,” he said.
“The armed struggle stage must now be voluntarily replaced by a phase of democratic politics and law.”
The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state for four decades and is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, decided in May to disband after an initial written appeal from Ocalan in February.
PKK launched its insurgency in 1984 – originally with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state.
