(Reuters) – Jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his fighters to withdraw from Turkey without their weapons under a peace process to end a decades-old insurgency, the Yeni Safak daily reported on Thursday.
A weapons-free withdrawal by Ocalan’s Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), as sought by the government, would be a significant step towards ending a conflict which has killed more than 40,000 people
The paper, which is close to the government, said Ocalan gave the message on Wednesday to a delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) which visited him in his prison on Imrali island, south of Istanbul.
The Yeni Safak report could not immediately be confirmed.
(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall, John Stonestreet)