Imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his rebel militant group lay down its arms and disband in a momentous announcement that could bring an end to a bloody decades-long conflict with the Turkish government.
Ocalan, writing from his prison cell on an island off of Istanbul, said the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) -- which has been designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States, and EU -- should hold a congress with the aim of dissolving the organization.
“Convene your congress and make a decision. All groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself,” Ocalan said.
The message was read in Kurdish and Turkish by pro-Kurdish party politicians who had visited the 75-year-old Ocalan earlier in the day.
Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan in 1993 photo.
Ocalan also called on the Turkish government to increase democratization and to ensure human rights in the country
Ocalan has been imprisoned on Imrali Island since 1999 after he was captured, tried, and convicted of treason.
Even from his cell, he holds massive influence over his supporters and the PKK. Many observers expect the group’s leaders will accept Ocalan’s call, although some splinter groups could resist.
Ankara late last year offered an olive branch to Ocalan, whose PKK has conducted a long insurgency against the Turkish state that has cost tens of thousands of lives. The group sought independence or autonomy for Kurds, who make up about 15 percent of Turkey's population.
“Today is a holy day, a blessed day," Emine Atac, 45, told AFP in Kurdish in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, considered to be the center of Turkey’s Kurdish community.
"We are very happy. We want peace and freedom," she said.
The White House welcomed Ocalan’s call for the PKK to set down its weapons.
"It’s a significant development and we hope that it will help assuage our Turkish allies about U.S. counter-ISIS partners in northeast Syria,” said Brian Hughes, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
“We believe it will help bring peace to this troubled region."
In Germany, which has a large Turkish population, the Foreign Ministry said, "This is a historic opportunity to break the decades-long spiral of terror, violence and retaliation that has cost tens of thousands of lives."
"Above all, this includes respecting and guaranteeing the cultural and democratic rights of Kurds in Turkey," a spokesman said.
A UN spokesman said Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres "welcomes" Ocalan’s announcement, calling it a "glimmer of hope."
Ocalan became a left-wing activist while a university student in Ankara and was first jailed in 1972.
He established the PKK in 1978 and launched an arm struggle in 1984, mainly from hiding places inside Turkey and in Syria, where he took refuge before being forced out in 1998.
He fled to Russia, Italy, and Greece before he was arrested in 1999 after being tricked into entering a vehicle by Turkish security forces outside the Greek Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
An estimated 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict – some through PKK attacks on military and civilian targets, and others in Turkish military operations against the group and communities where it found support.