Leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday called on his group to convene an extraordinary congress to end the four-decade-long armed struggle against Turkey.
In a message to his followers, the jailed leader said: "I find it necessary for PKK to convene a congress to end the 40-year-long armed struggle against the Turkish Republic and determine political and social strategies in accordance with the spirit of the new era." The Kurdish and Turkish versions of the message were read respectively by deputy chairperson of the parliamentary group of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Pervin Buldan and her colleague Sirri Sureyya Onder during a ceremony held in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir to mark the Kurdish Nevruz day.
He stressed the need for a peaceful solution and a democratic constitution that could ensure freedom and equality for all citizens in Turkey.
"The new era for Kurds would be based on free, egalitarian, constitutional citizenship within the Republic of Turkey," he affirmed.
Ocalan voiced hope that the new Kurdish year will see the end of an era of "meaningless and merciless identity wars" that resulted from "imperialist capitalism and its local collaborators." The PKK leader, who serves a life sentence on Imrali island, in the Sea of Marmara, reached a framework agreement with the Turkish intelligence to solve the Kurdish problem.
His new call is expected to change the relationship between the armed group and the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and give momentum to the peace process.
The call was hailed by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu who said in a spring festival organized by the AKP: "The peace process has arrived at an important phase." Davutoglu sponsored the peace talks with Ocalan since 2012 meant to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict which destabilized the predominantly-Kurdish southeast part of the country.