Long-Jailed PKK Leader Says ‘Armed Struggle’ Against Turkey Has Ended

PKK fighters will start handing over their arms this week in northern Iraq’s city of Sulaymaniyah, according to reports in both Turkish and Kurdish media.

A member of the PKK's youth wing sifts through a weapons cache in the city of Nusaybin, Turkey, on March 1, 2016. Cagdas Erdogan/Getty Images

Abdullah Ocalan, the long-imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has formally announced the end of his group’s decades-long terrorist campaign against the Turkish state and called for a full transition to democratic politics.

“The phase of armed struggle has ended,” Ocalan, who has been held by the Turkish authorities for the past 25 years, said in a video message.

“This is not a loss, but a historic gain,” he said in the message, which was dated June and first released on July 9 by the PKK-linked Firat News Agency.

Since the 1980s, the PKK has been engaged in violence against the Turkish state, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of people, including countless civilians.

Turkey, along with the United States and the European Union, has long regarded the PKK as a terrorist group.

In his video message, Ocalan said the decades-long phase of “armed struggle” by the PKK should now give way to a “phase of democratic politics and law.”

The seven-minute video message represents Ocalan’s first public appearance since he was captured by the Turkish authorities in 1999.

In the message, Ocalan asserts that the PKK’s “main objective” has been achieved.

“The existence [of Kurdish rights] has been acknowledged,” he said. “What remains would be excessive repetition and a dead end.”

In February, Ocalan issued a landmark appeal to PKK fighters to lay down their arms. Three months later, the PKK leadership, based in the mountains of northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, confirmed its decision to abide by Ocalan’s call to disarm.

In return for disarmament, both the PKK and Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party expect Ankara to initiate a program of democratic reform.

The DEM Party has played a key role in advancing the disarmament process by mediating among Ocalan, the PKK’s Iraq-based leadership, and the Turkish authorities.

In a statement posted on its website in May, the DEM Party described the disarmament process as a “historic turning point.”

It also called on Turkish political institutions, especially Parliament, to “take responsibility for resolving the Kurdish issue and achieving genuine democratization.”

Ocalan, 75, founded the PKK in 1978 with the stated aim of establishing a Kurdish state in the Middle East. The group later moderated its stance, demanding Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey, where ethnic Kurds predominate.

Despite his lengthy imprisonment, Ocalan is still widely regarded as the PKK’s de facto leader.

Supporters hold an image of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in Diyarbakir, Turkey, on Feb. 27, 2025. Metin Yoksu/AP

Process to Start in Sulaymaniyah: Reports

On July 7, the Erbil-based Rudaw Media Network reported that a first batch of PKK fighters—between 20 and 30—were expected to “lay down their weapons in Sulaymaniyah in the coming days.”

Erbil is the capital of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Sulaymaniyah, which sits near the Iranian border, is the Kurdish region’s second-largest city.

On July 8, Turkey’s NTV news channel also reported that PKK fighters would begin handing over their weapons—in groups—later this week in Sulaymaniyah.

According to the broadcaster, which did not cite any sources for its assertions, the disarmament process will likely take between two and five months to complete.

Turkey, Iraq, and Iran—along with the European Union and the United States—have all welcomed the PKK’s stated decision to disarm, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has referred to as a “historic opportunity.”

In May, a U.S. State Department spokesman called the move a “victory for civilization,” noting that Washington has regarded the PKK as a “foreign terrorist organization” since the late 1990s.

A day before Ocalan’s video message was released, Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin visited Baghdad for talks with top Iraqi officials, including the prime minister.

According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, they discussed means of achieving a “terror-free Turkey,” which is how Ankara typically frames the PKK disarmament drive.

Last week, Kalin paid a visit to Erbil, where he met leading members of the Kurdish regional government, which has also voiced its support for the disarmament process.

Reuters contributed to this report.