ISTANBUL (AP) — Kurdish militants who have waged a 40-year insurgency in Turkey declared a ceasefire on Saturday in what could mark a significant boost to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, two days after their imprisoned leader called for the group to disarm.

Residents in Diyarbakir, Turkey's largest Kurdish-majority city, said on Sunday that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) decision to heed its jailed leader's call for peace was correct and prosperity would follow if the decades-old conflict ended.

Syrian Kurds gathered this week to listen to a message from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan Outlawed Kurdish group the PKK has declared a ceasefire with Turkey after its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan called on the movement to lay down its arms and dissolve.