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 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.

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.

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