ISTANBUL — Jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan is proposing to withdraw his fighters from Turkey by August under a draft plan to end a 28-year insurgency, media reports said Wednesday. Imprisoned on Imrali island near Istanbul since 1999, Ocalan has since October been discussing a deal with Turkey's government to end a conflict that has killed 40,000 people since his Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) took up arms in 1984. Under the plan, sent to Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party as well as the PKK leadership, the rebels would begin a formal ceasefire on March 21, the Kurdish New Year, said the Sabah and Star newspapers, which are close to the government. The PKK is estimated to have around 2,000 fighters in Turkey, with several thousand more in bases in northern Iraq. Their withdrawal from Turkish territory under the plan would be completed by Aug. 15, the 29th anniversary of the start of a conflict that has destabilized Turkey and held back the development of its mainly Kurdish southeast. The 20-page “road map”, handwritten by Ocalan, has not been published and the accuracy of the reports could not be confirmed. They said Ocalan was due to finalize it in mid-March. A member of parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which received the plan on Tuesday, played down the timetable in the Turkish media and said no decisions had been made. Idris Baluken told Reuters that Ocalan had outlined his ideas in the document and had asked the BDP as well as the PKK leadership in northern Iraq and in Europe to respond with their thoughts in the next two weeks. “Ocalan wants to know whether the government is sincere or not,” Baluken said. “We want to talk positively but we have not made much progress politically.” The success of the process depends on Turkey passing reforms increasing the rights of a Kurdish minority numbering about 15 million — around 20 percent of Turkey's population. Ocalan's plan contained no demand for Kurdish autonomy, media reports said. “Nobody should stand up and demand anything that is aimed at harming our national unity,” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told reporters late Tuesday. “If they put down their weapons and leave our country, there are many places in the world they can go,” he said. During his decade in power, Erdogan has pushed through reforms boosting Kurdish cultural rights. But Kurdish politicians want wider political reforms, including new constitutional guarantees for the Kurds and more Kurdish language education. — Reuters
