Abdullah Ocalan, jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, appeared in a rare online video yesterday to declare the ...

In a seven-minute video message broadcast on media close to the militants, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan ...

The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group renewed Wednesday a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a ...

PKK's transition. The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, officially declared the group’s ...

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, appeared in a rare video to declare the end of the group's armed struggle against Turkey, urging a transition to democratic politics. His message ...

In the first footage of him to be released publicly since 1999, Abdullah Ocalan declared that the PKK's armed struggle ...

Since 2012, there have been several failed attempts to secure a lasting peace between the Turkish government and the PKK. Since late 2024, however, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government ...

The PKK resorted to brutal tactics beginning in the late 1980s and early 90s. According to a report by the European Council on Foreign Relations from 2007, the group, under Ocalan, kidnapped ...

Kurdish leader Ocalan told the PKK to disband, it did: Here’s what to know PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is leading peace efforts to end a Kurdish armed rebellion against Turkiye after four decades.

Fighting dwindled after Ocalan's capture, which led to the withdrawal of rebel fighters from Turkey. After a flare-up in violence, Turkey and the PKK became involved in peace talks from late 2012.

With Ocalan's arrest, Ankara thought it had decapitated the PKK. But even from his cell he continued to lead, ordering a ceasefire that lasted from 1999 until 2004.