The Kurdish guerrilla group that has been fighting a long-running insurgency against Turkey declared a ceasefire Saturday, days after a call from its jailed leader to disarm and disband the organization raised hopes of ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people over four decades.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, said the ceasefire would begin immediately. But it also called for Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK’s founder and leader who has been in a Turkish prison for a quarter century, to be freed so he can oversee the group’s dissolution.

If the PKK does disband, it would resolve a major domestic security threat and mark a political victory for Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. If negotiations proceed with Ocalan, it could usher in a new era of peace across the region where Kurds have pursued an armed struggle in a mountainous area that intersects parts of Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

But there are still many unanswered questions.

It is not clear whether Turkey will cease armed operations against the PKK, who would monitor any truce or what would happen to fighters who do lay down their arms. There is also the question of whether the government has offered the Kurdish fighters anything in return.

But a ceasefire would allow Kurds to start internal consultations and hold local congresses to forge a democratic way forward, something Kurds in Turkey and Syria have said they want to do.

The PKK announcement came two days after Ocalan said that the group had outlived its lifespan and should dissolve itself.

In recent years, Turkey’s military has degraded the PKK’s fighting abilities, which analysts say may have contributed to its willingness to discuss an end to its fight.

The Turkish government did not immediately comment on the PKK statement.