Kurdish group PKK says it is laying down arms and disbanding

Vocabulary: 231, Words: 441

1Outlawed Kurdish group the PKK, which has waged a 40-year insurgency against Turkey, has announced it is laying down its arms and disbanding.

2The move followed a call in February by the group's jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, for it to disband.

3The PKK insurgency initially aimed to create an independent homeland for Kurds, who account for about 20% of Turkey's population. 4But it has since moved away from its separatist goals, focusing instead on more autonomy and greater Kurdish rights.

5More than 40,000 people have been killed since the insurgency began.

6The PKK - which is banned as a terrorist group in Turkey, the EU, UK and US - said it has "completed its historical mission" and would "end the method of armed struggle."

7From now on, the Kurdish issue "can be resolved through democratic politics", the group said in a statement published on the PKK-affiliated news agency ANF.

8In February, Ocalan, 76, called on his movement to lay down its arms and dissolve itself. 9The PKK leader has been in solitary confinement in prison on an island in the Sea of Marmara, south-west of Istanbul, since 1999.

10Ocalan wrote a letter from prison in February saying "there is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and realisation of a political system. 11Democratic consensus is the fundamental way."

12It is unclear what Ocalan and his supporters will get in return for disbanding but there is speculation that he may be paroled.

13Kurdish politicians will be hoping for a new political dialogue, and a pathway towards greater Kurdish rights.

14Both sides had reasons to do a deal now.

15The PKK has been hit hard by the Turkish military in recent years, and regional changes have made it harder for them and their affiliates to operate in Iraq and Syria.

16President Erdogan needs the support of pro Kurdish political parties if he is to be able to run again in Turkey's next presidential election, due in 2028.

17The decision to disband was an important step towards a "terror-free Turkey", and the process would be monitored by state institutions, a spokesperson for President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party said, according to Reuters news agency.

18Winthrop Rodgers, from the international affairs think tank Chatham House, said it would take "a major democratic transition by Turkey" to accommodate demands from Kurdish political parties.

19There has been "some goodwill" from some Turkish leaders in recent months, Mr Rodgers said, which allowed the PKK disbandment to play out.

20He added: "But whether that extends to the major changes needed to ensure full Kurdish participation in politics and society is far less clear.

21"In a lot of ways, the ball is in Turkey's court."

from BBC