Jailed Kurdish militant leader calls for end to conflict with Turkiye

Turkiye’s jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan today called on his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to lay down its arms, a move that could end its 40-year conflict with Ankara and have far-reaching political and security consequences for the region, Reuters reports. A delegation of Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party visited Ocalan today in his island prison and later delivered his statement in nearby Istanbul. “I am making a call for the laying down of arms, and I take on the historical responsibility of this call,” Ocalan said in a letter made public by DEM party members. Ocalan wants his party to hold a congress and to formally agree to dissolve itself, they quoted him as saying. The PKK is deemed a […]