In his Nevruz (festival of spring) message, Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of PKK, calls out to all fighting rebels to cease fire and withdraw, ending the fight. Welcoming Ocalan's call for peace, unity, and reconciliation, hundreds of thousands of people celebrate Nevruz in Diyarbakir province of South Eastern Turkey.
Ocalan's message signals for the beginning of a "new era" in which struggles will be carried on by means of democracy, not armed conflict:
We have come to a point today where guns shall be silenced and thoughts and ideas shall speak. A modernist paradigm that ignores, denies and externalizes has collapsed. Blood is being shed from the heart of this land, regardless of whether it is from a Turk, Kurd, Laz or Circassian. A new era begins now; politics comes to the fore, not arms.
Read the rest in Turkish Daily News (Hurriyet):
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