PKK Leader Ocalan Urges Terrorist Group to Lay Down Arms, Dissolve

Abdullah Ocalan said the PKK had ‘run its course’ and that improvements in freedom of expression had removed its ‘foundational meaningfulness.’

Young people hold a photograph of the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, Abdullah Ocalan, as they gather to watch a live reading of his statement in Diyarbakir, Turkey, on Feb. 27, 2025. Metin Yoksu/AP

The imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, on Thursday called on the terrorist group to lay down its weapons and dissolve.

In a statement from a prison on the island of Imrali, near Istanbul, Ocalan, 75, urged the PKK to hold a congress and formally disband.