ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party has called on his organization to disarm and dissolve as part of a new effort to end 40 years of fighting between the state and the banned militant group.

Turkey's jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to disarm and disband on Thursday, a move that could end its 40-year conflict with Ankara and have far-reaching political and security consequences for the region.

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.

Abdullah Ocalan’s appeal raised the prospect of an end to a conflict between Turkey and the PKK that since the 1980s has killed an estimated 40,000 people.

The imprisoned leader of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, has urged his followers to lay down their arms in the decades-long fight against Turkey. "All groups should lay down their weapons and the PKK should dissolve,

Pro-Kurdish politicians are meeting the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as part of renewed peace efforts.

Kurdish militant leader Abdallah Ocalan has asked his followers in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to lay down arms and dissolve the group, potentially ending a decades-long conflict with Turkey that is estimated to have killed at least 40,

The jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdish militant group PKK called on Thursday for the group to lay down its arms and dissolve itself, in a letter read by Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM Party. "As in the case with any modern community and party whose existence has not been abolished by force,

The PKK's decades-long Kurdish insurgency in Turkey has killed tens of thousands of people. Now its long-time leader says it's time to end the fight.