ISTANBUL: Outlawed Kurdish militants on Saturday declared a ceasefire with Turkey following a landmark call by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan asking the group to disband and end more than four decades of armed struggle.

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.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkey would continue military operations against outlawed Kurdish militants unless they kept their pledge to disband.

“If the promises given are not kept and an attempt is made to delay… or deceive… we will continue our ongoing operations… until we eliminate the last terrorist,” Erdogan told a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner in Istanbul.

In an address to the relatives of people killed or wounded in PKK attacks, Erdogan assured that there was nothing in the initiative “that would disturb the sacred spirits of our martyrs”. He said Turkey would be the winner, as well as “our children, the guarantee of our bright tomorrows”.

The Turkish leader warned, however: “We always keep our iron fist ready in case the hand we extend is left hanging in the air or bitten.”

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has waged an insurgency since 1984 to carve out a homeland for Kurds, who account for around 20 percent of Turkey’s 85 million people. But more recently, the group has called for more autonomy, and 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. The PKK said on Saturday it was ready to convene a congress as Ocalan wanted but “for this to happen, a suitable secure environment must be created” and Ocalan “must personally direct and lead it for the success of the congress”. The group also said Ocalan’s prison conditions must be eased, adding he “must be able to live and work in physical freedom and be able to establish unhindered relationships with anyone he wants.”

Turkey’s vice president Cevdet Yilmaz said “a new phase” began toward achieving the goal of a “terror-free Turkey”, without making any mention of the PKK statement.