Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdish insurgent group P.K.K., called on his fighters to lay down their arms after decades of battling the Turkish state.
Safak Timur reported from Istanbul.
The imprisoned leader of a Kurdish guerrilla movement that has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state called Thursday for his group to lay down its arms and dissolve, a pivotal declaration that could echo in neighboring countries and help end 40 years of deadly conflict.
Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., made his appeal in a written statement that was read aloud during a news conference by members of Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish political party who had just visited him in prison.
He said the group had gained ground at a time when “democratic channels of politics were blocked” but had outlived its life-span and should disband.
“Convene your congress and make a decision,” he said in the statement, read aloud first in Kurdish then in Turkish. “All groups must lay down their arms and the P.K.K. must dissolve itself.” Turkey and the Kurds must now move forward “with the spirit of fraternity,” the statement added, saying democracy was the only path to do so.
The news conference was packed with journalists and Kurdish politicians. Some in the audience applauded and gave a standing ovation when a new image of the rarely photographed Mr. Ocalan appeared on a screen.
The rare message from Mr. Ocalan raised the possibility that a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people over four decades could finally end.
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