Kurdish militant leader Abdallah Ocalan has asked his followers in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to lay down arms and dissolve the group, potentially ending a decades-long conflict with Turkey that is estimated to have killed at least 40,

The call from Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the PKK, could have far-reaching consequences for Turkey, Syria, and the broader region.

Imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his militant group on Thursday to lay down its arms and dissolve as part of a new bid to end a four-decade long conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party known as PLK, sent a letter calling for the group to disarm and dissolve to make peace with Turkey.

Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdish insurgent group P.K.K., called on his fighters to lay down their arms after decades of battling the Turkish state.

Abdullah Ocalan’s appeal raised the prospect of an end to a conflict between Turkey and the PKK that since the 1980s has killed an estimated 40,000 people.

Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, on Thursday called for the group’s disarmament and disbandment. VOA Kurdish spoke to locals in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s largest Kurdish-majority city.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militia will heed its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan's call for disarmament and declare an immediate ceasefire, a news agency close to the group cited it as saying on Saturday,

The long-imprisoned leader of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party has called on his followers to disarm, a move that could end a decades-long conflict with Turkey. Chief Correspondent at Al-Monitor Amberin Zaman tells Becky Anderson more about this historic call.