PKK announces final declaration of the congress

2025-05-12 12:02:01


	 

	 

	NEWS CENTRE - With the decision taken at the PKK 12th Congress, it was announced that the organisational structure was dissolved and the armed struggle was ended. In the declaration, it was also announced that Ali Haydar Kaytan and Rıza Altun lost their lives.

	 

	PKK published the final declaration of the 12th Congress held between 5-7 May. In the declaration, it was announced that the structure of the organisation was dissolved and the armed struggle was ended. In the declaration, it was announced that Ali Haydar Kaytan and Rıza Altun, two founding members of the PKK, had died.

	 

	In the statement made by the Congress Council, it was stated that the decisions taken as a result of the process that started in line with the call made by Abdullah Öcalan on 27 February marked ‘the beginning of a new era’. The congress stated that the PKK had completed its historical mission and that the next process would be carried out within the framework of democratic politics.

	 

	The PKK 12th Congress Council statement is as follows:

	 

	 “The process initiated by Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s statement on February 27, and further shaped by his extensive work and multidimensional perspectives, culminated in the successful convening of our 12th Party Congress between May 5–7. 

	 

	Despite ongoing clashes, aerial and ground attacks, continued siege of our regions, and the KDP embargo, our congress was held securely under challenging conditions. Due to security concerns, it was conducted simultaneously in two different locations. With the participation of 232 delegates in total, the PKK 12th Congress discussed Leadership, Martyrs, Veterans, the Organizational Structure of the PKK and Armed Struggle, and Democratic Society Building, culminating in historic decisions marking the beginning of a new era for our Freedom Movement.

	 

	The Extraordinary 12th Congress evaluated that the PKK’s struggle has dismantled the policies of denial and annihilation imposed on our people, bringing the Kurdish issue to a point where it can be resolved through democratic politics. It concluded that the PKK has fulfilled its historical mission. Based on this, the 12th Congress resolved to dissolve the PKK’s organizational structure and end the armed struggle, with the implementation process to be managed and led by Leader Apo. All activities conducted under the PKK name have therefore been conclude

	 

	Our party, the PKK, emerged as a Kurdish freedom movement in opposition to the denial and annihilation policies rooted in the Treaty of Lausanne and the 1924 Constitution. Influenced by real socialism at its inception, it embraced the principle of national self-determination and carried out a legitimate, just struggle through armed resistance. The PKK was formed under conditions dominated by aggressive Kurdish denial, annihilation, genocide, and assimilation policies.

	 

	Since 1978, the PKK has conducted a freedom struggle aimed at securing recognition for Kurdish existence and establishing the Kurdish issue as a fundamental reality of Turkey. As a result of this successful struggle, our movement achieved a resurrection revolution for our people, becoming a symbol of hope and a dignified life for the peoples of the region.

	 

	During the 1990s, a period of major gains for our people, Turkish President Turgut Özal began seeking a political solution to the Kurdish issue. In response, Leader Apo declared a ceasefire on March 17, 1993, launching a new phase. However, the collapse of real socialism, the imposition of gang-like tactics on our war strategy, and the deep state’s elimination of Özal and his team sabotaged this initiative. The state intensified its denial and annihilation policies, escalating the war. Thousands of villages were evacuated and burned; millions of Kurds were displaced; tens of thousands were tortured and imprisoned; and thousands were killed under suspicious circumstances.

	 

	In response, the Freedom Movement grew both in size and capacity. Guerrilla warfare spread across Kurdistan and Turkey. The impact of the guerrilla struggle led the Kurdish people to rise in mass uprisings (serhildans), turning war into the primary option for both sides. The resulting mutual escalation of war could not be reversed, and Leader Apo’s efforts to solve the Kurdish issue through democratic and peaceful means ultimately failed.

	 

	Our honorable people, who have joined the Leadership and PKK path for 52 years at great cost, resisting policies of denial, annihilation, genocide, and assimilation, will support the peace and democratic society process more consciously and organizedly. We firmly believe that our people will understand the decision to dissolve the PKK and end the method of armed struggle better than anyone and will embrace the responsibilities of the democratic struggle era based on building a democratic society. It is of vital importance that our people, led by women and youth, build their self-organizations in all areas of life, organize on the basis of self-sufficiency through their language, identity, and culture, become self-defensive in the face of attacks, and build a communal democratic society with a spirit of mobilization. On this basis, we believe that Kurdish political parties, democratic organizations, and opinion leaders will fulfill their responsibilities to advance Kurdish democracy and the democratic nationhood of the Kurds.

	 

	With the legacy of our history of freedom, struggle, and resistance, and the decisions of the PKK’s 12th Congress, the democratic political path will develop more strongly, and the future of our peoples will progress based on freedom and equality. The poor and working peoples, all faith groups, women and youth, workers, peasants, and all excluded segments will assert their rights and develop a common life in a just and democratic environment.

	 

	The decision of our Congress to dissolve the PKK and end the method of armed struggle offers a strong basis for lasting peace and a democratic solution. Implementing these decisions requires that Leader Apo lead and guide the process, that his right to democratic politics be recognized, and that solid, comprehensive legal guarantees be established. At this stage, it is essential that the Grand National Assembly of Turkey play its role with historical responsibility. Likewise, we call on the government, the main opposition party, all political parties represented in parliament, civil society organizations, religious and faith communities, democratic media outlets, opinion leaders, intellectuals, academics, artists, labor unions, women’s and youth organizations, and ecological movements to assume responsibility and join the peace and democratic society process.

	 

	The involvement of Turkey’s leftist-socialist forces, revolutionary structures, organizations, and individuals in the peace and democratic society process will elevate the struggle of peoples, women, and the oppressed to a new level. This will mean achieving the goals of the great revolutionaries whose last words were “Long live the brotherhood of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples and a fully independent Turkey!”

	 

	With Democratic Society Socialism representing a new phase in the peace and democratic society process and the struggle for socialism, the global democracy movement will advance, and a just and equal world will emerge. On this basis, we call on democratic public opinion, especially our comrades leading the Global Freedom Initiative, to expand international solidarity within the framework of the democratic modernity theory.

	 

	We call on international powers to acknowledge their responsibilities in the century-long genocide policies against our people, not to obstruct a democratic solution, and to contribute constructively to the process.

	 

	Our 12th PKK Congress, convened at the call of our leadership, has declared the martyrdom of Fuat-Ali Haydar Kaytan, one of our party’s leading cadres, who was martyred on July 3, 2018, and comrade Riza Altun, martyred on September 25, 2019. On this basis, it has recognized comrade Fuat-Ali Haydar Kaytan, one of the founding leading cadres of the PKK, as the symbol of “Loyalty to the Leader, Truth, and Sacred Life,” and comrade Riza Altun, one of Leader Apo’s first comrades, as the symbol of “Freedom Comradeship.” We dedicate our historic 12th Party Congress to these two great martyr comrades who have led us from the beginning of our Freedom Movement until today with their uninterrupted struggle. In their names, we renew our promise to all martyrs of the struggle and affirm our commitment to fulfilling the dreams of Peace and Democracy Martyr Comrade Sırrı Süreyya Önder."