PKK ends decades of armed struggle

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Monday announced its dissolution and the end of its armed struggle, drawing a line under its deadly four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

Founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK took up arms in 1984, beginning a string of bloody attacks on Turkish soil that sparked a conflict that cost more than 40,000 lives.

The PKK "has decided to dissolve... and end its armed struggle," it said in a statement after a landmark leadership congress, saying it had brought "the Kurdish issue to a point where it can be resolved through democratic politics".

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan hailed the move as an "extremely important step" for both domestic and regional security.

"The decision taken by the PKK is a historic and important decision, especially in terms of permanent peace and stability in our region," he told reporters, saying there was "much to be done" to ensure its implementation.

The move was also welcomed as a boost for regional security by top officials in Syria and Iraq, and hailed by the European Union.

Ocalan had in February urged his fighters to disarm and disband in a letter from Imrali prison island where he has been held since 1999. He also asked the PKK to hold a congress to formalise the decision.

The declaration was the culmination of seven months of work to renew long-stalled talks that began in October when Ankara offered Ocalan an unexpected olive branch.

The news won a cautious welcome on the streets of Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast, where locals have seen repeated efforts to end the violence come to naught.

"We want this process to move forward and not be left unfinished. They shouldn't deceive the Kurds as they did before. We really want peace," 60 year-old-worker Fahri Savas told AFP.

With PKK fighters present in both Syria and Iraq, the movement's dissolution is likely to reverberate in both nations.

Syria's top diplomat Asaad al-Shaibani said it was "a pivotal moment" not only for Turkey, "but for the stability of our region as a whole".

Nechirvan Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdistan region -- a crucial powerbroker in Kurdish affairs with close ties to Ankara -- hailed the "political maturity" of the decision, saying it would boost "stability in Turkey and the region".

Brussels urged "all parties to seize the moment" to resolve the decades-long Kurdish question