Several thousand people staged a rally on Sunday in the predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey, calling for the release of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The demonstrators gathered in a central square, chanting slogans in Kurdish, including “Serok Apo” — “Leader Apo” — in support of Öcalan, 77, who has been held on İmralı Island near İstanbul since 1999.
The rally came after the PKK last year said it was ending its armed campaign against the Turkish state, following a call from Öcalan for the group to lay down its weapons. The conflict, which began in 1984, has left more than 40,000 people dead.
After Öcalan’s appeal, the PKK announced it would dissolve itself, held a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq at which militants burned weapons and later said it had withdrawn its fighters from Turkish territory.
Veysi Aktaş, a former inmate who was once held with Öcalan on İmralı, told the crowd that a lasting peace would not be possible while Öcalan remained isolated.
“There can be no peace through isolation,” Aktaş said.
He said peace required “recognition of the people, respect for identity and respect for the will of the people.”
Öcalan’s supporters and politicians from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) have repeatedly called for an easing of his prison conditions. Although he has recently been allowed more contact with family members, lawyers and a small number of DEM Party lawmakers involved in renewed peace efforts, his detention conditions remain a key demand for the Kurdish political movement.
The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
© Agence France-Presse