Jailed Kurdish Leader Abdullah Ocalan Calls On PKK To Disarm

Imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has called on his fighters to lay down arms as part of a peace process to end a 30-year insurgency, Turkey’s main Kurdish party said Saturday.

Pro-Kurdish legislator Sirri Sureyya Onder said Ocalan is asking his Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, to hold an extraordinary congress in the spring to take the “historic decision” to end its armed struggle.

Onder spoke after a meeting with Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan who also described Ocalan’s call as a major step. “We regard the statement toward the acceleration of efforts to lay down arms as important,” he said.

The Huffington Post