The PKK announced the End of Ceasefire with Turkey

Kurdish PKK fighters have ended a unilateral ceasefire with Turkey that they announced after the earthquake earlier this year, reports AFP.

The announcement, carried by pro-Kurdish media, threatened to lead to a return to the violence that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the PKK began its fight for an autonomous state in southeastern Turkey in 1984.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was re-elected for another five years last month, has stepped up operations against the militant group and its offshoots in Iraq and Syria.

The PKK said it was responding to Turkey's renewed operations.

"The need for an active struggle has become inevitable," the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) said in a statement, as quoted by the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency (ANF).

"We declare that as of today we are ending the unilateral ceasefire," it said.