World

Kurd Rebels Pledge Cease-Fire

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 5, 1999 / 7:11 AM EDT / CBS

Kurdish rebels battling Ankara for self-rule in southeastern Turkey said Thursday that they would heed a call by their captured leader Abdullah Ocalan to abandon the armed struggle and pull out of Turkey.

Â"Our party openly declares its full compliance with comrade General Chairman Abdullah Ocalan's August 2 statement and will carry out all of its activities on this basis,Â" the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said in a statement carried by the German-based DEM news agency.

Ocalan earlier this week issued a statement through his lawyers calling on the PKK Â"to end the armed struggle and withdraw their forces outside the borders of Turkey, for the sake of peace, from September 1, 1999.Â"

After Ocalan was apprehended in Africa by Turkish forces, a Turkish court condemned him to hang for treason and heading the PKK's fight for Kurdish self-rule, in which more than 30,000 people have died.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Wednesday cagily acknowledged Ocalan's call for an end to the fighting, but added that time would tell what effect it would have. He also categorically refused any negotiations with the guerrilla chief.

The PKK statement urged Turkey to show Â"common sense, responsibility and respect in the face of the realities before the leaders of the Republic.Â" It also urged regional and world leaders to support Â"the efforts to solve such a historical problem.Â"

OcalanÂ's call for a cease-fire was largely seen as a last-ditch attempt to show that he has the clout to broker an agreement with Ankara. However, previous offers to negotiate an end to the war for a Kurdish state have largely fallen on deaf ears in Turkey, which regards Kurd rebels as separatist terrorists.