Kurdish leader 'outlines' Turkey peace plan
Turkish official says Abdullah Ocalan set to ask PKK fighters to declare truce by March 21 and lay down arms by August.
Last Modified: 27 Feb 2013 19:28
The leader of a Kurdish armed group imprisoned by Turkey is set to call for a long-sought ceasefire next month as part of a renewed push for peace with the Turkish government, according to officials.
Abdullah Ocalan, head of the PKK, is currently serving a life sentence on an island prison off Istanbul where visitors are seldom allowed and only under the surveillance of Turkish agents.
"[The PKK] will declare at the very least a ceasefire by Newroz [March 21, the Kurdish New Year] and lay down arms by July-August, after which departure from the country will be discussed," Bulent Arinc, Turkey's deputy prime minister, said in an interview on Turkish TV on Monday.
Arinc was quoting a 20-page letter written by Ocalan, which outlined his views on a possible solution for the nearly three-decade-long conflict between the PKK and Turkish security forces that has cost 45,000 lives, mostly Kurdish.
Turkey's secret services resumed negotiations with Ocalan in December with the ultimate aim of ending the PKK's fight for autonomy.
Ocalan's letter was addressed to PKK members and the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), according to Nazmi Gur, a BDP legislator.
'Draft solution'
Gur told AFP news agency that Ocalan was proposing a "draft solution" in the letter and there would be more discussion and feedback before reaching a final decision.
"We, all components of the Kurdish movement, will be standing behind that final decision Ocalan will give on that day," Gur said referring to March 21.
Both sides in the conflict have set out conditions they say would signal good faith and commitment to long-lasting peace.
PKK is asking for the release of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Kurdish activists and politicians kept in detention on charges of links to the group.
Turkey in return insists "terrorists" need to withdraw from Turkish territory before the peace process can effectively begin, and has promised not to attack rebels wishing to leave the country.
Source: Al Jazeera And Agencies
The Turkish government and jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan have agreed on a roadmap
January 9, 2013
ANKARA,— The Turkish government and jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan have agreed on a roadmap to end a three-decade-old insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, Turkish media reported Wednesday.
The deal was reached during a new round of talks between Ankara and Ocalan and aims to have the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) lay down arms in March, private news network NTV and Radikal newspaper reported.
An initial cessation of hostilities was to evolve into a fully-fledged ceasefire agreement over the following months, they said, without revealing their sources for the reported breakthrough.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government recently revealed that the intelligence services had for weeks been talking to Ocalan, who has been held on the island prison of Imrali south of Istanbul since his capture in 1999.
The government is expected to reciprocate the ceasefire by granting wider rights to Turkey's Kurdish minority, whose population is estimated at up to 15 million in the 75-million nation, according to unofficial figures.
The rebels also want the release of hundreds of Kurdish activists held in prisons over links to the PKK as well as the recognition of Kurdish identity in Turkey's new constitution, according to media sources.
But Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) warned the talks were not at the stage of fully-fledged ceasefire negotiations,www.ekurd.net arguing Ocalan would have to be freed first and given a chance to consult the grassroots.
"The conditions between the parties are just not equal," BDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtas told fellow lawmakers on Tuesday. "And by that, no, I do not mean Erdogan going into Imrali," he said.
Officials have not confirmed the details of the roadmap published in the media.
Hopes of a breakthrough on the Kurdish issue were heightened when two Kurdish lawmakers were allowed to visit Ocalan last week for the first time.
Previous talks floundered after the PKK leadership demanded the release of Ocalan.
Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a Kurdish state in the south east of the country. By 2012, more than 45,000 people have since been killed.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who constitute the greatest minority in Turkey. A large Turkey's Kurdish community, numbering to 25 million, openly sympathise with PKK rebels.
Abdullah Öcalan, who founded the PKK in 1974, has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide.
The PKK wants constitutional recognition for the Kurds, regional self-governance and Kurdish-language education in schools.
The PKK has nearly 50 thousand trained fighters on fronts and streets war, as they are deployed within the Kurdish areas near the common border of Turkey with both Iraq and Syria.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees, lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish constitution.
The rebels have scaled back their demands for more political autonomy for Turkey's ethnic Kurds.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish language and private Kurdish language courses with the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians say the measures fall short of their expectations.
The PKK is considered as 'terrorist' organization by Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which overturned a decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the European Union's terror list.
Source: Ekurd.net
New Delhi, Feb 27: After being put under house arrest here for nearly three weeks, Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was released as Delhi Police withdrew its personnel from his South Delhi home this evening.
