ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A group of Kurdish legislators traveled to a prison island off Istanbul on Monday to confer with rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is widely expected to call a cease-fire ordering his rebels to stop fighting as part of efforts to end a bitter three-decade-old conflict with Turkey.
The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party officials have said Ocalan — who is serving a life sentence for leading the Kurdish insurgency — is expected to call for a truce and maybe even ask several thousand fighters to withdraw from Turkey to coincide with a spring festival celebrated by Kurds on Thursday.
Three legislators from the Peace and Democracy Party were allowed to travel to Imrali island to meet with Ocalan and were expected to relay a message from him.
The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, has declared cease-fires in the past but these were largely ignored by Turkey which refused to talk to the rebels and vowed to continue to fight the group they until lay down arms. This time, the government has acknowledged that is it holding talks with Ocalan with the aim of persuading the PKK to disarm and the cease-fire declaration and the rebels' retreat would constitute a major step toward ending the conflict.
The government has yet to reveal details of the peace talks, but Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated the rebels would withdraw fighters from Turkey and disarm as part of the peace efforts.
Reports indicate that, in return, Turkey is expected to enact reforms to boost the rights of Kurds, including a new constitution that would amend the way all citizens are defined as "Turks" and grant more powers to local authorities. Turkey is also expected to change its legislation to allow the release of hundreds of Kurdish activists jailed for alleged links to the PKK.
In an important symbolic gesture, the rebels last week released eight captive Turkish soldiers and officials they had been holding in bases in northern Iraq.
Kurds make up an estimated 20 percent of Turkey's population of around 75 million. The rebels took up arms in 1984 for self-rule; Turkey and the West label the PKK a terrorist organization.
Murat Karayilan, who took over the PKK's command after Ocalan's capture and imprisonment in 1999, said in an interview with Firat News, a website close to the rebels, that his group has decided to support the peace initiative although the PKK has some unspecified reservations and concerns about the process.
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