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.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Tuesday that Turkey’s intelligence services will closely monitor the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to ensure the group follows through on its pledge to dissolve and disarm.

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