Jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey called on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to stop fighting against the authorities, a move that could end its 40-year conflict with Ankara and have wide-ranging political and security consequences for the region.
If the PKK leadership heeds its founder's call, which is not guaranteed, President Tayyip Erdogan would gain a historic opportunity to pacify and develop southern Turkey, where violence has killed thousands and devastated the regional economy. Meanwhile, Ocalan, now 75, could see his dream of peace realized in his lifetime, A2 CNN writes.
"I am calling for the surrender of arms and I take the historic responsibility of this call," Ocalan said in a letter made public by members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM Party. Ocalan wants his party to hold a congress and officially agree to dissolve itself.
A DEM delegation visited Ocalan in his island prison and later published his statement in nearby Istanbul.
In the first reaction to Ocalan's call from President Erdogan's ruling AK Party, its deputy chairman Efkan Ala said that Turkey would be "free from its shackles" if the PKK truly laid down its arms and disbanded.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies. More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK launched its armed campaign in 1984 for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey. It has since moved away from its separatist goals and instead has sought greater autonomy for southeastern Turkey and greater Kurdish rights.
Ocalan was captured in Kenya by Turkish special forces in 1999. Despite being imprisoned, he continued to have considerable influence, but it is unclear how much influence he now has over the PKK, whose fighters are mainly based in the mountains of neighboring northern Iraq.
The idea of re-engaging with Ocalan was floated in October by a politician named Devlet Bahçeli, an ultra-nationalist party leader and Erdogan's main parliamentary ally, who shocked the country when he suggested that Ocalan could be released if he could get the PKK to end its insurgency. (A2 Televizion)
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