The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was expected to announce as soon as Friday that it has decided to end its armed struggle against Turkey and will disband itself, two sources familiar with the matter told Middle East Eye.

The decision follows a statement issued in February by the PKK’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in which he called on the organization he founded more than 40 years ago to lay down its arms.

On Friday, the PKK said that it held a congress from 5 to 7 May and discussed Ocalan’s call.

In his February statement, Ocalan described the armed struggle as a product of a bygone era. In a one-and-a-half-page message, Ocalan explained that the PKK's armed struggle was once necessary due to Turkish state policies that denied Kurdish identity and restricted Kurds' rights and freedoms.