The PKK has "waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984", said Politico. Originally, it aimed to create an independent state for Kurds, an ethnic group of about 40 million people spread over Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Such independence was promised by the allied powers after the First World War, but never granted.

The Kurdish insurgent group PKK in Turkey says it will lay down its arms and disband after a decades-long fight that killed tens of thousands.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militia announced its decision on Monday to dissolve the group, a historic move after decades of conflict with Turkey that have killed tens of thousands of people.

The militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) made "historic decisions" at a congress this week after a call from its jailed leader to dissolve, a linked news agency said on Friday - a potentially key step in resolving a long conflict with Turkey.

It is essential to expose the underlying grounds of the process that led the PKK to dissolve itself and the falsity of its claims of “democracy and peace”.