ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Deputy Chairman of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Hasan Basri Yalcin said late Friday night that Turkey will “respond positively” to any statement the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) releases, but their expectations of the PKK to disband and lay down weapons still remain.

The PKK announced on Friday that it “successfully” held a congress and will soon release the results in response to a historic call by the party’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan in February for an end to hostilities.

Yalcin said later on the same day in response to the congress that as the people and the state of Turkey, “we will respond positively to whatever statement the PKK makes,” noting that “a single statement will not dissolve" the militant group during a televised interview with CNN Turk.

The AK Party official reaffirmed Turkey’s unwavering expectations however, for the PKK “to be dissolved and to lay down their arms.”

The PKK is an armed group that has fought for increased Kurdish rights in Turkey for decades. The group, designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara, uses mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region as shelter and often engages in direct armed conflict with Turkey.

After an October proposal by Devlet Bahceli, a prominent politician and party leader in Turkey, and multiple meetings and deliberations by the mediating pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, Ocalan called on the PKK in late February to lay down arms and be dissolved in a historic address in which he urged the movement to transition from armed struggle to a political approach.

The PKK’s congress was held “between May 5-7… The results of the congress, extensive and detailed information and documents regarding the decisions taken, will be shared with the public soon,” read a statement by the militant group on Friday.

It "was held in parallel in two different areas with delegates representing all areas of work,” the statement read, detailing it was held to heed Ocalan’s call.

In 2013, the Turkish government, led by then-prime minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, entered a peace process with the PKK aimed at ending the decades of conflict and bloodshed. The truce was short-lived and collapsed in July 2015, leading to violent clashes in Turkey’s southeastern Kurdish areas.

Millions across Turkey—Turks and Kurds alike – are now once again looking ahead with renewed hope that an enduring solution will be found to permanently resolve the conflict that has spanned decades and claimed tens of thousands of lives.