Kurdish leader ‘outlines’ Turkey peace plan<\/p>\n
Turkish official says Abdullah Ocalan set to ask PKK fighters to declare truce by March 21 and lay down arms by August.<\/p>\n
Last Modified: 27 Feb 2013 19:28<\/p>\n
![\"2012101354421661734_20\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/2012101354421661734_20.jpg\")
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.<\/p>\n
“[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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Turkey’s secret services resumed negotiations with Ocalan in December with the ultimate aim of ending the PKK’s fight for autonomy.<\/p>\n
Ocalan’s letter was addressed to PKK members and the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), according to Nazmi Gur, a BDP legislator.<\/p>\n
‘Draft solution’<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Both sides in the conflict have set out conditions they say would signal good faith and commitment to long-lasting peace.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":66781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[5858],"class_list":["post-66778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-ocalan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}