The jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdish militant group PKK called on Thursday for the group to lay down its arms and dissolve itself, in a letter read by Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM Party.
"As in the case with any modern community and party whose existence has not been abolished by force, would voluntarily do, convene your congress and make a decision; all groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself," Abdullah Ocalan was quoted as saying.
Turkey will be "free of its shackles" if the Kurdistan Workers Party lays down arms and dissolves, ruling AK Party Deputy Chairman Efkan Ala said on Thursday after the group's jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan called on it to disband.
Calls for compliance
In the first response from President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, Ala said the government expected the PKK to comply with Ocalan's call.
Nechirvan Barzani, president of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, has welcomed the call by Abdullah Ocalan, jailed leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), for it to lay down arms and dissolve itself, a statement said on Thursday.