Jailed PKK leader calls on his followers to disarm
Rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan asks Kurdish leadership to make a historic decision to end 30-year-old conflict.
Ocalan, the founder of the PKK, was captured in Kenya after being forced to leave a Greek diplomatic mission there in 1999 [AP]
Abdullah
Ocalan, the jailed leader of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), has called
on his followers to lay down their arms, as part of a peace process to
end a 30-year insurgency, Turkey's main Kurdish party has said.
The
incarcerated rebel leader's message was shared with the public by the
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan during a press conference on Saturday.
"I
invite the PKK to attend an extraordinary congress in the spring months
in order to make the strategic and historic decision to abandon the
armed struggle," Sirri Sureyya Onder, a lawmaker from pro-Kurdish
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), said, quoting Ocalan.
Onder
spoke live on television alongside the deputy prime minister, who said
the move towards disarmament showed "an important phase in the
resolution process has been reached", after the two sides met briefly in
Istanbul.
There
was no immediate response from PKK commanders who are based in northern
Iraq, but the group generally heeds Ocalan's calls.
Government reforms
Al
Jazeera's Bernard Smith, reporting from Istanbul said: "Since Ocalan
declared a ceasefire in 2013, this may be one of his most significant
statements.
"That
ceasefire essentially brought an end to an armed struggle between the
Turkish state and Kurdish separatists that has seen more than 40,000
people killed since 1984," Smith added.
The
Al Jazeera correspondent said that the peace process that started has
been stalled, and the Kurds say it is because the Turkish government did
not introduce the promised reforms.
"The
PKK are saying before this extraordinary congress goes ahead it wants
to see the government reforms and security bills pushing through the
parliament.
"There
is a lot happening in the background before you might ultimately see an
announcement that the Kurdish separatists have laid down their arms,"
Smith said.
Ocalan has been serving a life term in prison on an island south of Istanbul since 1999 but retains influence over his fighters.
Turkey
began talking to Ocalan in 2012 with the aim of ending the conflict
that has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.
Facing
a parliamentary election in June, the government has repeatedly said it
expected Ocalan to declare an end to the PKK's armed struggle for
greater autonomy and cultural rights for Turkey's estimated 15 million
Kurds.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
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