The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) declared on Monday its intention to dissolve and disarm after over forty years of insurgency against the Turkish government, a conflict that has led to the deaths of more than 40,000 individuals due to clashes involving PKK fighters and the Turkish military.

The PKK aimed to establish an independent Kurdish state within Turkish territory, where Kurds constitute approximately 20% of Turkey’s 86 million citizens. The United States, the European Union, and Turkey have all designated the PKK as a terrorist organization.

According to a Reuters report, the PKK stated in its announcement that it “has completed its historic mission.” Over time, their focus transitioned from seeking total independence to advocating for enhanced Kurdish rights and limited self-governance in southeastern Turkey.

The jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been held on an island south of Istanbul since 1999, urged in February that the PKK disband. 

Separately, Mazloum Abdi, the pro-American commander in chief of Syrian Kurdish fighters, called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which ousted the Islamic State, said Ocalan’s call did not apply to his organization. The YPG is part of the larger umbrella organization, the SDF, and is not associated with the PKK.

People leave the area after an explosion on Istanbul’s popular pedestrian Istiklal Avenue, Nov. 13, 2022. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP)

The U.S. and the EU are allied with the SDF and the YPG in the fight against Islamist terrorism in Syria and, in contrast to Turkey, do not see an affiliation between the SDF, YPG and the PKK.  

Fox News Digital has reported over the years on Turkey’s efforts to wipe out pro-U.S. Syrian Kurdish forces (SDF and YPG) who played a key role in the dismantlement of the Islamic State.

Syrian Democratic Forces fighters ride atop military vehicles as they celebrate victory in Raqqa, Syria, Oct. 17, 2017. (Reuters/Erik De Castro)

In December, after former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad fled to Russia and his regime collapsed, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., declared repeatedly in an address to Erdoğan in Congress, “Leave the Kurds alone.” He added, “The Kurds are America’s friends… The people most responsible for helping us, most responsible for destroying ISIS, were the Kurds.”

The Kurds are among the largest stateless ethnic groups in the world, with some 30 million concentrated in an area straddling Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. A minority in all four countries, the Kurds speak their own language, with several dialects. Most are Sunni Muslims.