section_path: History/2010s–2020s/Disarming and disbanding as part of peace effort
section_name: Disarming and disbanding as part of peace effort
paragraph_text: Disarming and disbanding as part of peace effort
  
  In February 2025, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan urged all members of the group to lay down arms and dissolve the organisation for good. In a statement read out by the deputies of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), Öcalan called on the PKK to convene its congress, lay down its arms and dissolve itself, arguing that the party "has completed its life like its counterparts and necessitated its dissolution". He also called for an alliance between Turks and Kurds and for peaceful coexistence, quoting the positive political approaches of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and calls for peace by Nationalist Movement Party Devlet Bahçeli.
  
  Between 5–7 May, the PKK's 12th Party Congress convened. The organisation announced its own dissolution on 12 May 2025. The decision was appreciated by Turkish authorities. President Erdoğan characterised it as "important", stating that they have now "crossed another critical threshold" toward the goal of a terror-free Turkey. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan described the PKK's self-dissolution as "a historic and important decision", saying that "practical steps will be taken after this".