Jailed Kurdish leader to urge settlement with Turkey

ISTANBUL, Feb 04 (AFP): The jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, Abdullah Ocalan, will "make a historic call" in the coming days for a settlement in Turkey's Kurdish question, a pro-Kurdish party leader said on Tuesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main nationalist ally last year extended an olive branch to PKK figurehead Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence on the prison island of Imrali off Istanbul since 1999.

Ankara and its Western allies have proscribed the PKK as a terrorist organisation for a decades-long insurgency to create an independent Kurdish state and more recently greater political autonomy.

In 2015, a peace attempt initiated by Ankara shattered, unleashing a wave of violence in the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

But signs of a thaw have increased in recent months, with the government twice allowing lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish DEM opposition party to visit the 75-year-old Ocalan, raising hopes of a breakthrough. DEM co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan told parliament on Tuesday: "Mr Ocalan is preparing to make a historic call in the coming days for a lasting solution to the Kurdish issue.

"Everything is now in Erdogan's hands... This is your chance to write history, Mr. Erdogan," he added.

Erdogan said last month that he was "cautiously optimistic," praising "significant progress" in the negotiations.