Five key dates in the Turkey-PKK conflict

Kurdish party leader Abdullah Ocalan on Thursday urged fighters to lay down their arms and to dissolve the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group that he founded.

Here are five key dates in the history of Ocalan and the PKK, which has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state that has left tens of thousands dead:

1978-1984: PKK formed, armed struggle begins

With Marxist-Leninist roots, the PKK was formed in 1978 by Ankara University students, with the ultimate goal of achieving the Kurds' liberation through armed struggle. Mostly Kurds, they chose Ocalan, a political science student, as leader.

A Turkish military coup in 1980 forced the PKK and its leader to flee to Syria and Lebanon. While in Lebanon, the movement in 1984 began a strategy of armed conflict.

Its militants trained in east Lebanon's Beqaa, while at the same time attacking Turkish military posts and convoys.

Turkey hit back sparking a wave of violence especially in the Kurdish-majority southeast that left the region in a state of near civil war.

1999: Ocalan's arrest

Ocalan left Syria and moved between several European states after the Turkish government threatened Damascus over its backing for the PKK.

Arrested on February 15 in Kenya and sentenced to death in Turkey, Ocalan was placed in solitary confinement in a prison on Imrali island, off the coast of Istanbul.

His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2002 when Turkey started the process of abolishing the death penalty as part of EU-backed reforms.

2013-2015: fragile truce

Ocalan told the PKK to lay down their arms in a letter read out on March 21, 2013 during Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, as part talks with the government of then premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan that were mediated by the pro-Kurdish HDP party (now DEM).

Turkey's National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) had also held talks with the PKK in Oslo.

The truce collapsed in July 2015 after a deadly bomb attack in Suruc, a town near the Syrian border.

At the same time, the HDP's success in that year's elections heaped pressure on Erdogan's government which feared losing control.

2015-2016: clashes in southeast

Turkey bombed PKK targets in Iraq and led a vast military offensive at home. The PKK hit back with "urban warfare".

There were fierce daily battles in the southeast, including in the city of Diyarbakir, which has left a bitter legacy among the local population.

Ties deteriorated after a failed 2016 coup, with a government crackdown on Kurdish political activities and the arrest of Kurdish politicians.

Turkey also deployed troops in northern Syria to protect its frontier.

2024-2025: a new opening

After a decade of status quo marked by occasional attacks, the hardline nationalist MHP party extended Ocalan a shock olive branch, urging him to renounce violence in a move backed by Erdogan.

A delegation of DEM lawmakers has since held three meetings with him on Imrali on December 28, January 22 and February 27.

The New Arab