The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Saturday declared a ceasefire with Turkey, bringing an end to more than 40 years of bloodshed. The imprisoned leader of the Kurdish militant group, Abdullah Ocalan, this week called for the PKK to disband.

The Executive Committee of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) released a statement in response to the historic call made by Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan on 27 February. Öcalan highlighted the urgent need for democratization in Turkey and called for the PKK to lay down arms and dissolve itself.

The PKK Executive Committee's written statement titled 'To Our Patriotic People and Democratic Public Opinion' reads as follows: 

“Leader Abdullah Öcalan's February 27 statement titled “Call for Peace and Democratic Society” is a Manifesto of the Age that illuminates the path of all forces of freedom and democracy. We respectfully salute Leader Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] for presenting such a manifesto for democratic society to our people and humanity."

It was the first reaction from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) after Ocalan this week called for the dissolution of the group and asked it to lay down arms.

"In order to pave the way for the implementation of leader Apo's call for peace and democratic society, we are declaring a ceasefire effective from today," the PKK executive committee said referring to Ocalan and quoted by the pro-PKK ANF news agency.

"We agree with the content of the call as it is and we say that we will follow and implement it," the committee based in northern Iraq said.

"None of our forces will take armed action unless attacked," it added.

The PKK designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has waged an insurgency since 1984 with the aim of carving out a homeland for Kurds, who account for around 20 percent of Turkey's 85 million people.

But more recently, the group calls for more autonomy, cultural and linguistic rights rather than independence.

Since Ocalan was jailed in 1999 there have been various attempts to end the bloodshed, which has cost more than 40,000 lives.

After several meetings with Ocalan at his island prison, the pro-Kurdish DEM party on Thursday relayed his appeal for PKK to lay down its weapons and convene a congress to announce the organisation's dissolution.