Kurdish militant group PKK to disband after four-decade insurgency against Turkey

The Kurdistan Workers Party PKK declared on Monday that it will disband and disarm following its more than four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state that has resulted in the deaths of over people at the hands of PKK militants and Turkey s military The PKK has sought to create an independent Kurdish state on Turkish soil where the Kurds make up certain of Turkey's million population The U S the European Union and Turkey have classified the PKK as a terrorist organization In its report the PKK commented according to a Reuters summary it has completed its historic mission which over the years shifted to seeking greater Kurdish rights and limited autonomy in southeast Turkey rather than an independent state TURKISH DRONE STRIKES IN SYRIA KILL U S -BACKED FIGHTERS WOUND CIVILIANS KURDISH GROUP SAYS The PKK struggle has broken the procedures of denial and annihilation of our people and brought the Kurdish issue to a point of solving it through democratic politics it mentioned on the Firat news website which displayed images of senior PKK members attending the congress in fighter fatigues Turkey will take necessary measures to ensure smooth progress toward a terror-free country after the PKK decision commented Turkey s presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun The dissolution of the PKK raises a host of questions for the Islamist leadership of Turkey s President Recep Tayyip Erdo an and the pro-American Kurdish forces YPG in northern Syrian who helped defeat the Islamist State terrorist movement Turkey considers the YPG an affiliate of the PKK and has repeatedly launched military strikes against Syrian Kurds TURKEY'S INVASION THREATS SHOULD BE TAKEN 'VERY SERIOUSLY' CYPRUS OFFICIALThe jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan who has been held on an island south of Istanbul since urged in February that the PKK disband Separately Mazloum Abdi the pro-American commander in chief of Syrian Kurdish fighters called the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF which ousted the Islamic State explained Ocalan s call did not apply to his organization The YPG is part of the larger umbrella organization the SDF and is not associated with the PKK The U S and the EU are allied with the SDF and the YPG in the fight against Islamist terrorism in Syria and in contrast to Turkey do not see an affiliation between the SDF YPG and the PKK Fox News Digital has informed over the years on Turkey s efforts to wipe out pro-U S Syrian Kurdish forces SDF and YPG who played a key role in the dismantlement of the Islamic State In December after former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad fled to Russia and his regime collapsed Sen John Kennedy R-La declared repeatedly in an address to Erdo an in Congress Leave the Kurds alone He added The Kurds are America's friends The people bulk responsible for helping us majority responsible for destroying ISIS were the Kurds The Kurds are among the largest stateless ethnic groups in the world with particular million concentrated in an area straddling Turkey Iraq Iran and Syria A minority in all four countries the Kurds speak their own language with several dialects Bulk are Sunni Muslims