ISTANBUL: Turkey's main pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy party has denied reports that jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan had told his fighters to leave the country without their weapons under a peace plan.
A weapons-free withdrawal by Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party would have been seen as a significant step towards ending the conflict.
NO BLOODSHED
Ocalan's supporters have gathered to celebrate his April 4 birthday in southeast Sanliurfa province, where he was born. In a message read out there on Wednesday evening, he appealed for their support for the process, saying he had fulfilled his role.
"I am calling on everyone who says 'I am honourable', whether rich, poor, male, female, young or old, to conform with and develop this (peace) process," he said in a message read out to the crowd in the district of Halfeti.
His supporters set off fireworks and chanted "Long live the leader Apo (Ocalan)" as the message was read out, the Kurdish Firat news agency reported.
"I hope that not a drop of blood will be shed as this process develops. Nobody should harm another. Everyone should participate in this process with love," he said.
Later on Thursday, Erdogan will meet the members of a new 63-strong "wise people commission", made up of academics, journalists and performing artists, established by the government to promote the process nationwide.
A deputy from Erdogan's ruling AK Party presented on Wednesday a proposal to form a parliamentary commission to assess the peace process. The withdrawal will be monitored by Turkish intelligence and the Kurdistan regional government.
The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, launched its insurgency with the aim of carving out an independent state in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, but later moderated its goal to autonomy.
Pro-Kurdish politicians are focused on expanding minority rights and stronger local government for the Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of Turkey's population of 75 million people. (Additional reporting by Gulsen Solaker and Jonathon Burch in Ankara; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Alistair Lyon)
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article