After four decades of violence that have claimed at least 40,000 lives, this was a momentous declaration. On Thursday, the leader of the Kurdish insurgency, Abdullah Öcalan, revered by his supporters, called on fighters to lay down arms. In a written statement from his prison cell – he has been held in isolation for a quarter of a century – he urged his Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) not only to disarm but to dissolve itself.
Yet optimism must be tempered. Ten years ago, a two-year truce between the militant group and the Turkish state imploded and some of the worst violence of the long conflict ensued. More than 7,000 people, including hundreds of civilians, have died since then.
