ISTANBUL (AP) — Kurdish militants who have waged a 40-year insurgency in Turkey declared a ceasefire on Saturday in what could mark a significant boost to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, two days after their imprisoned leader called for the group to disarm.

The militia wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party announced a cease-fire with immediate effect Saturday to halt decades of conflict between Turkey and the Kurds.

Outlawed Kurdish group the PKK has declared a ceasefire with Turkey after its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan called on the movement to lay down its arms and dissolve. In Saturday's statement, the PKK said it hoped Turkey would release Ocalan, who has been imprisoned in solitary confinement since 1999, so he could lead a process of disarmament.

A momentous ceasefire declaration has stirred a mix of emotions in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, where people bore the brunt of the 40-year conflict between Kurdish militants and the Turkish state.

Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, on Thursday called for the group’s disarmament and disbandment. VOA Kurdish spoke to locals in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s largest Kurdish-majority city.

A delegation of Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM Party visited jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan on Thursday in his island prison, where he was expected to give them a statement that Ankara hopes will pave the way for his outlawed group to disarm.

Residents in Diyarbakir, Turkey's largest Kurdish-majority city, said on Sunday that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) decision to heed its jailed leader's call for peace was correct and prosperity would follow if the decades-old conflict ended.

Outlawed Kurdish militants 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.