IMPRISONED Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan renewed a call on Saturday for his fighters to end their armed struggle against Turkey.

In a message read to Kurds celebrating a spring festival, Mr Ocalan said the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) should convene a congress to abandon arms and seek a democratic solution.

Mr Ocalan made a similar call earlier this month but the PKK leadership responded by saying that it would convene a congress only if the Turkish government took steps that included establishing independent observers to monitor the peace process.

But Mr Ocalan said on Saturday that the Turkish government should take the steps outlined in a 10-point declaration both sides have agreed.

He called for the establishment of committees to oversee the peace process.

“As the principles of the declaration are agreed, I see it as essential and historic that the PKK holds a congress to bring an end the 40-year armed struggle,” Mr Ocalan wrote.

His message received a rapturous response from hundreds of thousands of supporters in the crowd in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

“A new era is set to begin with this congress,” Mr Ocalan wrote.

“In this new era, within the Republic of Turkey, we’ll enter a phase where we will live in peace, as sisters and brothers, with a democratic identity and in a democratic society.”

by Our Foreign Desk