The Workers’ Party of Kurdistan (PKK), which has been in conflict with the Turkish state for more than four decades, has decided to disband and end its armed struggle.

“The 12th Congress of the PKK decided to dissolve the PKK’s organizational structure and put an end to the method of armed struggle,” the armed Kurdish organization, which had earlier made it known that it held a congress last week, said in a statement.

It was preceded in February by a message from PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who had asked members of the Kurdish group to hand over their weapons.

The statement by the jailed PKK leader was read out by MPs from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Freedom and Democracy Party (DEM) at a meeting held in Constantinople.

The “resolution” of the Kurdish issue and the renunciation of armed struggle by the PKK, which was founded by Ocalan in 1978, is expected to significantly strengthen Turkey, neutralize separatist tendencies once and for all, and make its relations with Iran and Iraq, where significant Kurdish minorities live, more manageable. Northern Iraq, in fact, already constitutes an autonomous Kurdish region.

The expectation is that a new peace process will put a definitive end to the vision of the Kurds for the creation of an independent Kurdish state in the Middle East, which also represents the greatest security threat to Turkey itself.