PKK Founder Orders Kurdish Group To Lay Down Its Arms, Dissolve In Historic Statement

"A grand deal involving Turkey, Syria, and the

Kurds is in the works, and on Thursday a
historic announcement was made by the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Abdullah Ocalan, speaking from a Turkish prison, has called on the group that he founded to lay down its arms and disband. This is the result of years of running Turkish -PKK battles as well as fragile negotiations. The PKK has long been in an official state of war with the Turkish government, which considers it a terrorist organization.
"Convene your congress and make a decision," Ocalan said in the statement, read aloud both in Kurdish and in Turkish . "All groups must lay down their arms and the P.K.K. must dissolve itself." ZH