The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was founded in 1978 as a Marxist party. The movement's goal was a Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey and adjacent parts of neighboring countries.
In 1984, the PKK – which is labeled as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU, and the USA – took up arms against the Turkish state in the fight for independence.
Abdullah Öcalan, now 75 years old, who is not only the leader but also the founder of the movement, has been held in isolation on a prison island outside Istanbul since 1999.
It was from there that he announced the dissolution of the PKK, thereby ending the decades-long conflict with Turkey that has cost tens of thousands of lives.
"Must dissolve itself"
Members of the pro-Kurdish party DEM read out the statement from Abdullah Öcalan, after visiting him in prison:
"All armed groups must lay down their weapons and the PKK must dissolve itself."
It was last autumn that the leader of the far-right party MHP, Devlet Bahçeli, who is closely allied with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, extended a hand and offered Öcalan to visit the country's parliament to "renounce terror" and dissolve the PKK.
Got to meet relatives
Shortly thereafter, Öcalan was given the opportunity to meet with relatives for the first time in several years, in what was described as an attempt by the Turkish government to calm down the situation in the Kurdish border areas with Syria.
Öcalan then announced that he was "ready to take necessary measures".
Turkey's attempt to resume dialogue came only a few weeks before Syrian rebels overthrew Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad, which upset the regional balance of power and put Turkey's complex relationship with the Kurds in a new spotlight.
Since Öcalan was imprisoned in 1999, there have been several attempts to put an end to the bloodshed that broke out in 1984. The latest attempt failed in 2015.
