Kurdish rebel leader in Turkey, Abdullah Ocalan, calls for disarmament congress

Jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his followers to take a "historic" decision to lay down their arms, according to a statement on Saturday, a crucial step in Turkey's drive to end a 30-year insurgency by Kurdish rebels.
Turkey's president, Tayyip Erdogan, welcomed the call but cautioned the rebels had failed to deliver on previous pledges.

Sirri Sureyya Onder, a lawmaker from parliament's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), read a statement from Ocalan that urged the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to attend a congress on disarmament in the spring months.

"I invite the PKK to attend an extraordinary congress in the spring months in order to make the strategic and historic decision to abandon the armed struggle," Onder said, quoting Ocalan, with whom an HDP delegation met this week...............Reuters.............http://www.todayonline.com/world/kurd-rebel-leader-turkey-calls-militants-attend-disarmament-talks?singlepage=true28/2/15
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Related:

• The jailed leader of Turkey's main Kurdish rebel group has urged followers to end a 30-year armed struggle...

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• Kurdish militants demand progress from Turkey or say peace process will end 

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