For almost half a century, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been causing major problems for the Turkish authorities.
For decades, the PKK has been fighting Turkey to win territory for the Kurds in the Middle East.
This group, which has leftist roots, was formed in the late 1970s.
It launched an armed struggle against Turkey in 1984, calling for the establishment of a Kurdish state within Turkey.
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Who are the Kurds and why don't they have their own state?
The Kurds are the indigenous people of the mountains and plains of Mesopotamia, who spread across southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and southwestern Armenia.
It is estimated that between 25 and 35 million Kurds live in this area.
They constitute the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East (after Arabs, Persians, and Turks), but do not have their own nation-state.
For hundreds of years, the Kurds lived under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
When it collapsed at the end of World War I, many Kurds began to think about creating their own homeland, often called "Kurdistan".
The victorious Western powers said this could happen in 1920 with the Treaty of Sèvres.
However, this was suppressed in 1923 by the Treaty of Lausanne, which drew the borders of modern Turkey and made no concessions for a Kurdish state.
Kurds remained a minority in all the countries in which they lived.
For the next 80 years, all moves by the Kurds to establish an independent country were stifled.
Why does Turkey perceive the PKK as a threat?
Kurds make up between 15 and 20 percent of the Turkish population.
In response to the revolutions of the 1920s and 1930s in Turkey, many Kurds were resettled, Kurdish names and costumes were banned, the use of the Kurdish language was restricted, and even the existence of a Kurdish ethnic identity was denied, and these people were called "Mountain Turks".
In 1978, Abdullah Öcalan – a left-wing political activist from southeastern Turkey – founded the PKK, which called for an independent state within Turkey.
In 1984, the group began an armed struggle.
Since then, approximately 40.000 people have been killed in Turkey and parts of Syria and Iraq near Turkey's borders.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in Turkey.
The PKK has been designated a terrorist group in Turkey, the US, the UK and EU countries.
Who is imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan?
Hated by most Turks, considered an enemy of the state by the Turkish government, but respected by most Kurdish nationalists, Abdullah Öcalan has been a dominant figure in Kurdish politics and a controversial name in Turkey for decades.
If the PKK heeds the call to lay down its arms, this could be an incredibly significant moment for Turkey and all Kurds living in the region, ending a 40-year armed conflict that has claimed more than 40.000 lives.
Born in 1949 in Sanliurfa, in southeastern Turkey, Öcalan became the founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the early XNUMXs.
He led the group into armed conflict soon after, launching a separatist rebellion in 1984, with the ultimate goal of establishing a Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.
After several years of leading the group from exile in Syria, Öcalan was forced to flee to Kenya, where he was captured in 1999.
He was then returned to Turkey, where he was tried on terrorism charges and sentenced to death for treason.
On the day of the verdict, the Kurdish community in Turkey and in various other European cities organized demonstrations, some of which escalated into riots.
In 2002, Turkey commuted his sentence to life imprisonment as a result of abolishing the death penalty while the country was aligning with EU laws.
Since 1999, he has been serving his sentence on Imrali, a small island in the Sea of Marmara between European and Asian Turkey, where a maximum-security prison is located.
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What are the PKK's ambitions in Turkey?
In the 1990s, the PKK softened its demands for an independent state, calling instead for greater autonomy for the Kurds.
Speaking to the BBC in 2016, PKK military leader Cemil Bayik said that "we do not want to secede from Turkey and establish a state. I want to live freely within the borders of Turkey on our own land."
"The struggle will continue until the inherent rights of the Kurds are accepted," he said.
However, Turkey continues to claim that the PKK is "trying to create a separate state within Turkey."
In the mid-1990s, there was fierce fighting between Turkish security forces and the PKK, when thousands of villages were destroyed in the mainly Kurdish southeast and east of Turkey.
Hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled to cities in other parts of the country.
Has the PKK tried to reach peace agreements before?
The PKK suffered a severe blow in 1999 when its leader Abdullah Öcalan was arrested and imprisoned for treason.
Shortly thereafter, the PKK announced a five-year unilateral ceasefire and attempted to change its image, broaden its appeal, and pursue a policy of peace.
It demanded a role in Turkish politics, more cultural rights for the country's Kurdish population, and the release of imprisoned PKK members.
Turkey refused to negotiate with the movement and offered only limited amnesty to its members.
Between 2009 and 2011, the PKK and the Turkish government held secret negotiations in Norway, but they failed.
In March 2013, Öcalan announced a further ceasefire, following negotiations with the government, and called for PKK forces to withdraw from Turkey.
However, that ceasefire collapsed in July 2015.
Since 2015, died more than 7.000 people in clashes between Turkish security forces and PKK fighters in Turkey and Iraq, according to the Crisis Group, a research organization.
The fighting was particularly fierce in 2015 and 2016, and was fought mainly in southeastern Turkey.
In 2019, Turkish security forces pushed many of the PKK extremists out of the country, and most of the fighting has since shifted to the autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq and northern Syria.
In Syria, Turkish troops (along with a joint militia called the Syrian National Army) have also been fighting the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey considers the Syrian wing of the PKK.
Since October 2024, the Turkish government – together with Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party – has been conducting negotiations with the PKK, which have included visits to Öcalan in prison on the island of Imrali, a maximum-security prison in the Sea of Marmara.
Surprising announcement
In October 2024, the leader of Turkey's right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) made a shocking move and called on Abdullah Öcalan to announce the dissolution of the PKK.
Devlet Bahçeli proposed that Öcalan be allowed to address the Turkish parliament on the condition that he disband the extremist group.
"If the isolation of the terrorist leader is lifted, let him come and speak," Bahceli said.
"Let him shout that terrorism has been completely ended and the organization has been disbanded."
In return, he suggested, Öcalan could potentially be released.
Since then, members of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party have visited the island of Imrali to talk to Öcalan.
Abdullah Öcalan has now called for a PKK congress to be convened and a decision to dissolve itself to be made.
If the PKK follows through on its call as expected, it could be a hugely significant moment for Turkey and all Kurds living in the region – potentially calming a 40-year armed conflict that has claimed more than 40.000 lives.
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