Jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, has been quoted indicating that he may be prepared to call for militants to lay down their arms.
Two parliamentarians from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party met Ocalan for talks on his island prison on Saturday, in the first such visit nearly in a decade. The Justice Ministry approved a request by the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) to meet Abdullah Ocalan. DEM requested the visit after a key Erdogan ally expanded on a proposal to end the 40-year-old conflict between the state and Ocalan's PKK.
Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, made the call a month after suggesting that Ocalan announce an end to the rebellion in exchange for the possibility of his release.
Erdogan described Bahceli’s initial proposal as a “historic window of opportunity”. After the latest call last month, Erdogan said he was in complete agreement with Bahceli on every issue and that they were acting in harmony and coordination.
Turkiye and its Western allies designate the PKK as a “terrorist group”. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the fighting, which in the past was focused in the mainly Kurdish southeast but is now centred on northern Iraq, where the PKK is based.
Prospects of peace come as Turkey announced on Sunday a $14 billion regional development plan that aims to reduce the economic gap between its mainly Kurdish southeast region and the rest of the country.
The announcement comes amid increased hopes for an end to a decades-long insurgency waged by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey as well as the advent of a new leadership in neighbouring Syria with cordial ties to Ankara.
Read more here
