AILSA CHANG, HOST:
There has been a major development in an armed conflict that has raged for decades between Turkey and a Kurdish group in Turkey. The group's founder has now called for followers to disarm and disband. NPR's Jane Arraf has more from Damascus, Syria.
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AHMET TURK: (Speaking Kurdish).
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: This was a Turkish politician, Ahmet Turk, reading an extraordinary statement from a Kurdish leader imprisoned for the last quarter century.
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TURK: (Speaking Kurdish).
ARRAF: "All groups must lay down their arms and the PKK dissolve itself." That was the message from Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the militant PKK - the Kurdistan Workers' Party - in 1978, to fight for Kurdish rights in Turkey.
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ARRAF: Members of the Turkish party applauding the statement hope the move could end a decades-long conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people. Turkey, with the help of the U.S., arrested Ocalan in 1999 and has kept him in an island prison in solitary confinement ever since.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Shouting in Kurdish).
ARRAF: Ocalan, 75, is revered by millions of Kurds, including those at this rally. Many call him Apo, Kurdish for uncle. Turkey has ensured that no one has publicly heard his voice in 26 years. The delegation of Turkish politicians are among the very few visitors he has been allowed.
Kurdish leaders mostly welcomed the call. Barham Salih, a Kurd, is a former Iraqi president and now a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. He says this is a chance to shape the future.
BARHAM SALIH: This is not a mere afterthought. You have nearly 40 to 50 million Kurds spanning these countries across the Middle East. They are Kurds. They have their identity, they have their language, they have their cultural and political rights that needs to be recognized.
ARRAF: Ocalan's goal when he founded the party was to create an independent Kurdistan. For decades, lightly armed guerrilla fighters based in the mountains spanning Turkey and Iraq battled Turkey's powerful military. In the 1990s, the PKK declared it was no longer seeking separatism, but Turkey and the U.S. classify the PKK as a terrorist group.
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TURK: (Speaking Kurdish).
ARRAF: Ocalan, in his statement, wrote Turkey had made progress in recognizing Kurdish rights. He said democracy was now the way forward. If the PKK does disband, it could pave the way for an agreement between Kurds, who control northeastern Syria and are affiliated with the PKK branch, and the new Syrian government.
Jane Arraf, NPR 瓜神app, Damascus. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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