Jailed Kurd rebel leader calls on militants to attend talks with Turkey

Jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his followers to attend a conference on disarmament, according to a statement on Saturday, a crucial step in Turkey’s drive to end a 30-year insurgency with Kurdish militants. Sirri Sureyya Onder, a lawmaker from parliament’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), read a statement from Ocalan on live TV that invited the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to attend talks on disarmament in the spring months. The statement shows renewed efforts by the government and Kurds, who have sparred in parliament this month over a domestic security bill. Talks with Ocalan began in late 2012 to end a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, since 1984.

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