Ankara, Jan 11 || Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday urged the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to surrender its weapons, signalling a potential breakthrough in the country's most intractable conflicts.
Speaking in the Kurdish-dominated city of Diyarbakir, Erdogan described what he called a "new and important window of opportunity" to resolve a struggle that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s. "We do not think it is right that this should be wasted," he said.
His government has recently enlisted support from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party, whose members visited Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned PKK leader, to explore possibilities for disarmament.
Local media reports suggest that Ocalan may soon urge PKK militants to lay down their arms, potentially marking a major turning point in the decades-long struggle.