Iraq: PKK decision to disband boosts regional stability

The PKK decision is a "significant opportunity to promote peace efforts and end long-standing conflicts," a foreign ministry statement said.

It would also "strengthen security and stability in Iraq and the region", it added.

The Kurdish armed group on Monday announced its dissolution, saying it was ending its armed struggle against Turkey and drawing a line under its deadly four-decade insurgency.

The historic announcement came after an appeal by the group's founder Abdullah Ocalan, who urged his fighters in February to disarm and disband in a letter from Istanbul's Imrali prison island, where he has been held since 1999.

Blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies, the PKK operates rear bases in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, where Turkey also maintains military bases and often carries out air and ground operations against the Kurdish militants.

The PKK presence in Iraq has long been a major source of tension with neighbouring Turkey.

The group's decision is an "opportunity" to look into "arguments that have long been used to justify the presence of foreign forces in Iraq", the foreign ministry said.

Earlier, the president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, said the PKK decision "demonstrates political maturity... and lays the foundation for a lasting peace that would end decades of violence, pain and suffering".

He said that Kurdistan is ready to support efforts to guarantee the success of "this historic opportunity".

The Barzani family leads the region's ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), is a crucial powerbroker in Kurdish affairs and has close ties with Turkey.

The other main party in the autonomous region, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), also welcomed the announcement.

The PUK "remains firmly committed to the success of the peace process and will cooperate with and support all parties to ensure its success", its leader Bafel Talabani said.

Turkey has long accused the PUK of leniency towards PKK activities in Iraq.