Kurdish chief calls for congress to end Turkey rebellion

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday called for Kurds to hold a historic congress to end a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

In an eagerly anticipated message for the traditional Kurdish new year, Ocalan, however, stopped short of setting out a clear roadmap for disarmament of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels as had been anticipated in some quarters.

In the message read out by a pro-Kurdish lawmaker to hundreds of thousands of supporters in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Ocalan said that the armed struggle had been "painful" and could no longer be maintained.

"A congress should be organised to bring an end to the 40-year struggle against the Turkish republic," Ocalan said in the message read out by Sirri Sureyya Onder of the People's Democratic Party (HDP).

Ocalan is serving a life sentence on the prison island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara following his sensational arrest by Turkish agents in Kenya in 1999.

He said the congress — which would likely involve all the Kurdish political forces in Turkey — would decide "a social and political strategy which will determine our history".

Ocalan said that the congress — whose timing was not made clear — would usher in a "new era" in relations between Turkey and the Kurds.

The Turkish government welcomed the message, with Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc describing the statement as "positive in every way".

The written message had been delivered by Ocalan to a group of HDP deputies who visited him on Imrali on Thursday.

'Bury the hatred' 

In scenes that would have been unimaginable a decade ago and broadcast live on Turkish television, hundreds of thousands attended the Newroz new year celebration in Diyarbakir, hearing speeches in Turkish and Kurdish.

They flew yellow and red Kurdish flags and brandished pictures of Ocalan, known to his followers as "Apo" ("Uncle"), the main leader of Turkey Kurds despite his incarceration.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) co-founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has worked over recent years to find a solution to end the violence, granting modest reforms to the Kurdish minority.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed that the government "would do what it takes" for success in the peace process, saying Turkey was entering a new period of unity.

"Let's leave the anger aside and from now just focus on talks," he told supporters in a speech in Istanbul.

"Let's bury in the ground for ever the culture of hatred, the violence and the weapons. Let's bury the pain of the mother of a martyr in the ground," he said.

However the route to a final peace deal remains thorny, with Turkey preparing for legislative elections on June 7 and still shaken by the deaths of dozens in clashes during pro-Kurdish protests in October 2014.

Ocalan, who in February had called on the PKK to lay down their arms, did not specifically mention disarmament in this message.

The PKK has largely observed a ceasefire since 2013 but attempts to find a permanent deal have stalled over the issue of the withdrawal of PKK fighters and weaponry from Turkey.

The PKK's military leaders, who are based in the Kandil Mountains of northern Iraq, have argued their should be no disarmament before a final settlement.

'Kobani victory'

At least 40,000 people have been killed on both sides since the PKK formally began its insurgency in 1984 demanding self-rule for Turkey's Kurds, who make up around 20 per cent of the population. Bloodshed though had begun at least a decade before that.

The PKK is regarded as a terrorist group not only by Turkey but also by the United States and the European Union.

However it has also been working with Iraqi and Syrian Kurds in the US-backed campaign against Daesh militants, with PKK fighters winning respect for their abilities.

Ocalan hailed as a "victory" and a "new symbol of history" the defeat by Kurdish fighters of Daesh militants in the battle for the Syrian town of Kobani earlier this year.

Often described as the world's largest stateless people after being denied their own country in the wake of World War I, Kurds are spread between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.