Kurdish Rebels to Free Turkish Prisoners Tuesday
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is expected to hand over Turkish captives to a delegation made up of pro-Kurdish party members on Tuesday as part of renewed peace talks with Turkey, the interior minister said.
"We were informed of the fact that the delegation will go tomorrow (Tuesday)" to northern Iraq and the captives "will be delivered to us," Muammer Guler told reporters in Ankara Monday.
"I hope they will unite with their families."
Several lawmakers from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) are due to take kidnapped Turkish state officials from the hands of the PKK in northern Iraq where the group has safe havens and hand them over to their families on the Turkish-Iraqi border.
Turkey's spy agency rekindled peace negotiations with jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan late last year with the ultimate aim of ending nearly three decades of violence which has claimed more than 40,000 lives, mostly Kurdish.
Ocalan is currently serving a life sentence on an island prison off Istanbul where visitors are seldom allowed.
The Kurdish rebel group, branded a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies, is expected to declare a ceasefire on March 21, the day of the Kurdish new year and lay down arms by August.
Both sides in the conflict have laid down conditions to show their commitment to long-lasting peace according to media reports after Ocalan's rare meeting with three Kurdish lawmakers in February.
According to the three visiting BDP lawmakers, Ocalan said both sides held "prisoners" and that he hoped to see them "reach their families."
His remarks were interpreted in the media as a message to the PKK to release its hostages, including Turkish state officials.
The Kurdish movement is asking for the release of Kurdish activists and politicians held on charges of links to the PKK.
Around 45,000 people are believed to have been killed in 29 years of fighting between Turkish security forces and the PKK, which took up arms in 1984 for self-rule in Turkey's Kurdish majority southeast.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has however ruled out a general amnesty for Kurdish rebels.
The government led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is under pressure to stem the violence.
Erdogan has said he is determined to settle the Kurdish conflict and will guarantee safe passage for rebels wishing to leave the country.
Source: Agence France Presse
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