Jailed PKK boss says laws needed in Turkey peace process

By Ece Toksabay

ANKARA, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan said on Friday that peace-related laws were needed for a transition to democratic integration in Turkey, in a statement read out a year after he called on his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to end its decades-old insurgency and disband. 

That landmark call fuelled hopes for an end to a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people, sowed deep divisions and stymied development in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey. But progress has been slow. 

Ocalan’s call could be taken to endorse a road map, approved last week by a Turkish parliamentary commission, that urges legal reforms to run alongside the PKK’s disarmament, even though details on implementation remain hazy.

“The transition to democratic integration necessitates laws of peace,” Ocalan said in a statement read out by a senior figure in the pro-Kurdish DEM Party at a press conference. The democratic society solution envisions a “legal framework with political, social, economic, and cultural dimensions,” he added.  

The leaders of DEM, which has been closely involved in the peace process, said before reading Ocalan’s statement that it was time for the government to take concrete measures on issues including language, cultural and religious freedoms. 

The PKK declared an end to its insurgency in May last year and its militants burned some weapons in a symbolic ceremony last July. A few months later it announced its withdrawal from Turkey, and last week a militant source welcomed the parliament move but said there was still a lack of clarity. 

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and it is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. It initially sought an independent state but later moderated its goals to seeking autonomy and greater rights for Kurds. 

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer )