Istanbul, Oct 26, (dpa/GNA) – The militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), announced on Sunday that it would withdraw its fighters from Turkey, as part of a peace process with the Turkish government.
In a statement published on the PKK-affiliated news site ANF, the rebel group said that fighters would be withdrawn from Turkish territories to northern Iraq, where the PKK’s main headquarters is located in the Kandil Mountains in the region.
The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization in Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
In May, the PKK announced its dissolution, following a call from its imprisoned founder, Abdullah Ă–calan. The PKK laid down its arms symbolically in July.
The organization was founded in 1978 by Ă–calan in Turkey, primarily as a reaction to the political, social and cultural oppression of Kurds in the country.
Since the 1980s, it has fought with armed violence and attacks for a Kurdish state or an autonomous region in south-eastern Turkey.
Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives in the conflict. Ă–calan, in his mid-70s, has been imprisoned on the island of Imrali since 1999.
GNA