Jailed PKK leader requests discussions on normalization phase

Jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan on Sunday urged the government to move more quickly to the next phase of the Kurdish peace process and speed up discussions on reforms. "I am hoping to have made progress in the second phase of the Kurdish peace process by the beginning of September, in order to move to the discussions on the third phase, which we refer to as ' normalization.' I have not lost my hope," Ocalan said in a statement issued by Turkey's Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). The statement came after the visit to Ocalan, imprisoned on Imrali island, by a parliamentary delegation comprising BDP co- chairman Selahattin Demirtas and deputy parliamentary group chair Pervin Buldan. Ocalan emphasized the need to express himself directly, suggesting the possibility of holding a press conference on the island. Since last October, Ankara has been holding peace negotiations with Ocalan, who finally made an announcement of ceasefire and withdrawal in March. Earlier in May, the PKK fighters once stationed in Turkey started to head to their stronghold in Iraq. The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and part of the international community, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Since then, some 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the group.