The Kurdish guerrilla group that has been preventing a long-running insurgency towards Turkey declared a cease-fire on Saturday, days after a name from its jailed chief to disarm and disband the group raised hopes of ending a battle that has killed tens of 1000’s of individuals over 4 many years.
The Kurdistan Employees’ Occasion, or P.Ok.Ok., mentioned the cease-fire would start instantly. But it surely additionally known as for Abdullah Ocalan, the P.Ok.Ok.’s founder and chief who has been in a Turkish jail for a quarter-century, to be freed so he can oversee the group’s dissolution.
If the P.Ok.Ok. does disband, it could resolve a serious home safety risk and mark a political victory for Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. If negotiations proceed with Mr. Ocalan, it might usher in a brand new period of peace throughout the area the place Kurds have pursued an armed wrestle in a mountainous space that intersects components of Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
However there are nonetheless many unanswered questions.
“That is simply the primary sentence,” Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow on the Brookings Establishment, mentioned of Mr. Ocalan’s name to all teams to disarm.
It isn’t clear whether or not Turkey will stop armed operations towards the P.Ok.Ok., who would monitor any truce or what would occur to fighters who do lay down their arms. There’s additionally the query of whether or not the federal government has supplied the Kurdish fighters something in return.
However a cease-fire would enable Kurds to begin inside consultations and maintain native congresses to forge a democratic means ahead, one thing Kurds in Turkey and Syria have mentioned they wish to do.
The P.Ok.Ok. announcement got here two days after Mr. Ocalan mentioned that the group had outlived its life-span and will dissolve itself, a uncommon message from a frontrunner with broad affect over Kurdish fighters in Turkey, but in addition across the area, together with in Syria and Iraq.
The P.Ok.Ok. assertion, carried by Firat Information Company, a P.Ok.Ok.-linked information website, mentioned “none of our forces will take armed motion until attacked.”
In recent times, Turkey’s army has degraded the P.Ok.Ok.’s preventing talents, which analysts say could have contributed to its willingness to debate an finish to its battle.
Fighters of the P.Ok.Ok. revere their chief, Mr. Ocalan, and are anticipated to heed his name, however the group’s conditional assertion suggests it should proceed to make use of its leverage within the bargaining course of.
“For a majority of these organizations, cease-fires are a way to purchase time, overcome army setbacks and clean over cracks amongst members,” mentioned Oytun Orhan, an analyst on the Middle for Center Japanese Research based mostly within the Turkish capital, Ankara.
The Turkish authorities didn’t instantly touch upon the P.Ok.Ok. assertion or on the group’s name for Mr. Ocalan to be launched.
However on Friday, Mr. Erdogan welcomed the enchantment by Mr. Ocalan, which got here after a sequence of talks that included Turkish officers; Mr. Ocalan himself; and members of Turkey’s fundamental pro-Kurdish get together, the Individuals’s Equality and Democracy Occasion, or D.E.M.
“We have now a historic alternative to take a step towards demolishing the wall of terror” between Turks and Kurds, he mentioned. He added that Turkish officers would observe up on working to finish the battle, with out elaborating on what that will entail.
Mr. Erdogan mentioned in January that the federal government had supplied the P.Ok.Ok. no concessions.
The P.Ok.Ok. started as a secessionist group that sought to create an unbiased state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority, however extra lately it has mentioned it was in search of higher rights for Kurds inside Turkey.
Turkey, the USA and different nations classify Mr. Ocalan as a terrorist and the P.Ok.Ok. as terror group for its assaults which have killed Turkish safety forces and civilians. Many Turks see Mr. Ocalan, who was convicted in 1999 of main an armed terrorist group, as one of many nation’s greatest enemies.
Turkey and the P.Ok.Ok. have tried over time to resolve the battle, most lately by means of peace talks that began in 2011. Negotiations broke down in 2015, ushering in a lethal new section.
However final October, a strong political ally of Mr. Erdogan made a stunning public name to Mr. Ocalan, asking him to inform his fighters to put down their arms and finish the battle. Doing so, the politician mentioned, might open a pathway for his life sentence to be ended.
