Jailed Kurdish PKK leader Ocalan issues call to lay down arms

Abdullah Ocalan had earlier met pro-Kurdish MPs on an island where he has been in jail since 1999.

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His statement, read out in a letter by MPs from a pro-Kurdish party, was aimed at ending four decades of armed struggle in south-eastern Turkey in which tens of thousands of people have been killed.

Ocalan, 75, had earlier met the MPs for several hours on Imrali, an island in the Sea of Marmara south-west of Istanbul where he has been imprisoned in solitary confinement since 1999.

His announcement came months after ultra-nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli, who is an ally of Turkey's government, launched an initiative to bring an end to the conflict.

"There is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and realisation of a political system," Ocalan's letter read. "Democratic consensus is the fundamental way."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2kggzqy0x7o

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