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Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is “ready to make an appeal” to support a new Turkish government initiative aimed at ending decades of conflict, the pro-Kurdish party said on Sunday Turkish.
Two DEM party lawmakers paid a rare visit to Öcalan on his prison island on Saturday, the party's first in almost a decade, amid signs of easing tensions between the Turkish government and the PKK.
On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government approved the DEM's request to visit the founder of the PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.
Öcalan has been serving a life sentence on the island of Imrali, south of Istanbul, since 1999.
The government's approval of the visit comes two months after the leader of Turkey's nationalist MHP party, Devlet Bahceli, extended a shock olive branch to Öcalan, calling on him in parliament to renounce terrorism and disband his group , a decision supported by Erdogan.
“I have the competence and determination to make a positive contribution to the new paradigm launched by Mr. Bahceli and Mr. Erdogan,” Öcalan said, according to a DEM statement on Sunday.
Öcalan said the visiting delegation would share its approach with the state and political circles.
“In light of this, I am prepared to take the necessary positive steps and make this appeal.”
The PKK has led an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, killing tens of thousands.
The peace process between the PKK and the government failed in 2015, triggering violence, particularly in the Kurdish-majority southeast.
The new initiative launched in October by Bahceli, fiercely hostile to the PKK, sparked a public debate, with Erdogan hailing it as a “historic window of opportunity”.
But a deadly terrorist attack in October on a Turkish defense company in the capital Ankara, claimed by PKK militants, put those hopes on hold.
Turkey launched strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria after the attack, which killed five people.
“Strengthening Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood is not only a historic responsibility but also… an emergency for all people,” Öcalan said, according to the DEM statement.
He said all efforts would “take the country to the level it deserves” and become “a very valuable guide for democratic transformation.”
“It is time for peace, democracy and fraternity for Turkey and the region.”
The new move by both sides comes as Islamist rebels consolidate their control in neighboring Syria after toppling its president Bashar al-Assad.
Turkey hopes Syria's new leaders will address the issue of Kurdish forces in the country, which Ankara considers a terrorist group affiliated with the PKK.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in a telephone call to his American counterpart Antony Blinken on Saturday that Kurdish fighters “cannot be allowed to take refuge in Syria”, according to the ministry spokesperson.
According to the DEM statement, Öcalan said that developments in Syria showed that external interference would only complicate the problem and that a solution could no longer be postponed.
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