Istanbul, Mar. 6, (dpa/GNA) – Turkey on Thursday called on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to “immediately and unconditionally” disband and surrender its weapons, following a call by the group’s jailed founder Abdullah Öcalan, according to Turkish Defence Ministry sources.

Öcalan on February 27 urged the group to disarm and disband, and the PKK declared a ceasefire two days later.

The defence sources said that Ankara found Öcalan’s appeal “noteworthy,” but demands that PKK and all affiliated groups must “immediately cease terrorist activities, dissolve, disarm and surrender arms unconditionally.”

Ankara will not tolerate any delays by the PKK, the Defence Ministry sources said.

The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU, has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

This is the first ceasefire initiative in years. A previous attempt failed in the summer of 2015.

It was still unclear, however, which groups would be covered by the ceasefire, and whether it would also apply to linked groups in Syria.

Some politicians from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party, which delivered Öcalan’s call from his prison on an island off Istanbul, earlier said the call only concerns the PKK.

Turkey considers US-backed Kurdish militias in Syria as PKK-linked “terrorists” and often targets them.

Turkey neutralized 26 Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria in the week since Öcalan’s call, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

Turkish security sources separately said on Thursday that Ankara will have no reason to target the PKK once it completely disbands and no longer poses a risk to Turkey.

GNA