Ankara: The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) congress to discuss the party's dissolution is expected to be held in May, with disarmament anticipated in June. A pardon for PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is not envisaged in the event of the group's dissolution, as reported by the Turkiye newspaper on Wednesday, citing security sources.

According to Namibia Press Agency, preparations are currently underway, including arranging stations where the group, designated as terrorist in Turkey, could surrender weapons, among other technical issues. The sources highlighted that a number of changes to Turkish legislation concerning the fight against terrorism and the death penalty are planned before parliament goes on recess in July.

Despite the group's potential decision on dissolution, no steps to pardon Ocalan will be made, and he will continue to serve his sentence on Imrali Island. However, the conditions of his detention will be reviewed in connection with a new trial, the newspaper stated.

There are currently more than 25,000 people convicted of terrorism in Turkish prisons, including 17,000 members of the PKK, as per sources in the Turkish Ministry of Justice cited by the newspaper.

On March 1, the PKK announced a ceasefire with Turkey in response to a call by Ocalan for the group's dissolution and disarmament. In late February, representatives of Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM party read out an appeal by Ocalan to the group, calling for its dissolution and disarmament. The Kurdish armed groups of Syria's Democratic Union Party expressed readiness to lay down their arms if they were allowed to carry out political activities in Turkey.

Turkey's conflict with the PKK started in 1984 and resumed in 2015. Despite protests from Damascus and Baghdad, Turkey launched operations Olive Branch and Peace Spring in Syria in 2018 and 2019, and Operation Claw-Lock in Iraq in 2022. Ankara insisted that these operations aimed at protecting its borders from security threats posed by Kurdish militia.