The leader of the PKK Abdullah Ocalan has called for an immediate ceasefire with Turkey, in a significant step in the peace process between Kurds and Turkey.
A statement by Ocalan was read out to hundreds of thousands of people in the Kurdish capital Diyarbakir, during the Kurdish New Year Newroz celebrations. The statement was also broadcast live on Turkish television, an unprecedented move as all displays of PKK symbols are banned.
"We have reached the point where weapons should be silent and ideas and politics should speak,
"A new phase in our struggle is beginning. Now a door is opening to a phase where we are moving from armed resistance to an era of democratic political struggle," his statement said, adding that the 3,500 PKK fighters remaining in Turkey should withdraw to the mountainous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
"We have sacrificed decades for [the Kurds] and have paid a big price. None of these sacrifices and struggles were in vain. Kurds regained their self-awareness, essence and identity.
"Now it is time for our armed units to move across the border [to northern Iraq]. This is not an end but a new beginning. This is not abandoning the struggle, but a start to a different struggle."
The military leader of the PKK, Murat Karayilan supported the statement. "All of Turkey, Kurdistan and the world must know this: as the PKK movement, we are ready for war and for peace," he told the Kurdish Firat news agency.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cautiously welcomed the “positive” move, but stressed the importance of a ceasefire.
The spokesperson for the US States Department, Victoria Nuland, also welcomed the announcement, applauding the “courageous efforts of the Government of Turkey and all parties concerned to achieve a peaceful resolution”.
