The Kurdish insurgent group PKK in Turkey says it will lay down its arms and disband after a decades-long fight that killed tens of thousands.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has been locked in bloody conflict with Turkey for more than four decades, has decided to disband and end its armed struggle, group members and Turkish leaders said on Monday.

The PKK has "waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984", said Politico. Originally, it aimed to create an independent state for Kurds, an ethnic group of about 40 million people spread over Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Such independence was promised by the allied powers after the First World War, but never granted.

Trump’s Middle East trip comes amid a heady few days for Turkey, with news the PKK would disarm and as it is set to host delegations from Russia and Ukraine.

The Kurdistan Workers Party, a militant organization that seeks an independent Kurdistan, announced it was disbanding, a move that is expected to have wide-ranging consequences throughout the region.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) landmark decision to dissolve itself and lay down arms has been widely welcomed. Discussions over the move continue in Turkey.

Ankara's strategic win boosts its regional power, diminishing Iranian allies and testing Israel's strategic depth in the Levant

In a significant political and security development in Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) announced on Friday that it would hold its 12th congress in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq. This move comes in response to a call from imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan,