Kurdish leader raises hopes of end to conflict

Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has said he will make a “historic” appeal on Thursday, raising expectations of ceasefire in a 28-year-old conflict that has riven Turkey, leaving some 40,000 people dead and battering its economy.

Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) leader Selahattin Demirtas revealed Ocalan’s statement yesterday, on his return to Istanbul from a visit to his prison on the island of Imrali.

“We want to solve the arms problem rapidly and without losing time or another life,” he said, asking for the support of parliament and political parties to achieve peace.

Ocalan, who was captured by Turkish special forces in Kenya 14 years ago and long vilified as a murderer and “baby killer” in the Turkish media, said: “The statement I am preparing will be a historic call. It will contain satisfying information on the military and political dimensions of a solution.”

There was no immediate comment from the Turkish government, but a ceasefire could cement talks that have been progressing tentatively since last October.

A ceasefire call by Ocalan, coinciding with the Kurdish new year, could be accompanied by a command to his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants to withdraw to bases in northern Iraq, where the PKK says it keeps about half its 7,000 fighters.

The PKK is considered a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey. But prime minister Tayyip Erdogan has promoted contacts since last summer brought a sharp worsening of the conflict, with rising guerrilla violence and large-scale arrests of Kurdish activists in the south-east.

Ocalan was initially sentenced to be hanged for treason on Imrali, but this was commuted to life imprisonment. “Apo”, as he is known to his allies, has been kept largely in isolation since then, having no contact with his field commanders. He was not allowed a television until a few months ago.

Truces have been agreed, and failed, before, but this is the first time Ocalan and a Turkish prime minister have openly spoken of talks on a comprehensive settlement.

Justice minister Sadullah Ergin said he expected a withdrawal of PKK guerrillas to bases in northern Iraq to be completed by the end of 2013.

Images of soldiers’ coffins returning home have stirred deep emotions in Turkey. But allegations of human rights abuses by security forces in the south-east have damaged Turkey’s image in the EU, which Ankara is seeking to join.

The PKK had originally demanded a fully independent Kurdish state in south-eastern Turkey, but has moderated its goals to broader political and cultural autonomy. Kurds account for some 20 per cent of Turkey’s 76 million population.

In the course of the conflict, investment in the south-east of the country has slumped and poverty increased, putting a strain, beyond the human losses, on the whole Turkish economy.

In an initial confidence-boosting step, the PKK last week released eight Turkish captives it had been holding at bases in northern Iraq for up to two years.

Imrali island has long associations with the more turbulent chapters in Turkey’s history. After a military coup in 1960, prime minister Adnan Menderes and two other senior ministers were hanged there.