UK welcomes Kurdish leader’s calls on PKK to lay down arms

The British Foreign Ministry welcomed in a statement jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan‘s calls on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) elements to take the “historic” decision to lay down their arms, the Anadolu Agency reported.

“The United Kingdom welcomes Abdullah Ocalan’s invitation to elements of his organisation to lay down their arms,” the ministry said in a statement.

Adding that Britain is willing to make efforts and provide all kinds of support in order to reach a final solution in the region, welcoming steps taken by the Turkish government to foster internal peace in the country.

Sirri Sureyya Onder, a lawmaker from parliament’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), read a statement two days ago quoting PKK leader Ocalan, who is being held in a Turkish jail after being sentenced to life.

“I invite the PKK to attend an extraordinary session of congress in the spring months in order to make the strategic and historic decision to abandon the armed struggle”, Onder said.

Nearly two years ago Turkey launched a peace process through indirect negotiations with Ocalan, mediated by the HDP and the Turkish intelligence agency.