The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), recognized by Turkey and a number of countries as a terrorist organization, announced its dissolution and the end of the armed conflict with Ankara that has lasted for more than 40 years, the Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported, citing an official statement by the PKK dated March 1, 2025. The decision was a historic step that could put an end to one of the longest conflicts in the region, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.

The announcement of self-dissolution followed a call by PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been in a Turkish prison on the island of Imrali since 1999. In February 2025, Ocalan, whose words were read by representatives of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), called on the organization to lay down its arms and disband, arguing that the PKK had "fulfilled its historical role" and should give way to peace processes, AP News reports. Ocalan also called for an alliance between Turks and Kurds, a call echoed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called it a "new phase" for peaceful coexistence, NPR reports.

The PKK was founded in 1978 with the aim of creating an independent Kurdistan, but changed its goal in the 1990s to autonomy and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. The conflict with the Turkish government, which began in 1984, has claimed more than 40 lives, most of them Kurdish civilians. Over the decades of conflict, the PKK has declared ceasefires several times, the last of which in 2013 was broken after incidents in 2015, the BBC reports. The decision to disband was the first of such a scale that analysts say it may be linked to changing regional dynamics following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the weakening of the PKK's position in Iraq.