ANKARA — Turkey's prime minister says he hopes this week's Kurdish spring festival will herald the start of a peaceful resolution of the nearly 30-year-old conflict with Kurdish rebels. Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke Tuesday, ahead of Thursday's spring festivities when jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan is expected to reveal his plans for peace, including a possible ceasefire declaration and a timetable for his fighters' retreat from Turkey. Turkish officials have been holding talks with Ocalan on his prison island with the aim of persuading his autonomy-seeking group to disarm. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984. Reports say Ocalan is seeking guarantees from Turkey that his rebels will not be attacked as they withdraw from Turkey. A ceasefire call, 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 of its 7,000 fighters. “The statement I am preparing will be a historic call. It will contain satisfying information on the military and political dimensions of a solution,” said Ocalan, who was captured by Turkish special forces in Kenya 14 years ago and long vilified as a murderer and “baby killer” in Turkish media. “We want to solve the arms problem rapidly and without losing time or another life,” Ocalan said in asking for the support of parliament and political parties to achieve peace in the Kurds' fight for more autonomy.
The PKK is considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union as well as Turkey. But Erdogan has promoted the contacts since a worsening of the conflict brought rising guerrilla violence and large-scale arrests of Kurdish activists. — Agencies
