More PKK fighters expected to surrender, says Turkish minister

Oct 20, 2009, 13:36 GMT

Istanbul - Turkish officials said Tuesday they expect more rebels from the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to return from their hideouts in Northern Iraq and surrender - 24 hours after the first group did so.

Eight fighters from the PKK's bases in the mountains of northern Iraq turned themselves over to Turkish forces on Monday, along with 26 Kurdish refugees, including women and children, from a camp near the Iraqi-Turkish border.

'In the coming days we'll hear more good news,' Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay said on Tuesday in Ankara. The minister said the government expects a further 150 PKK supporters to surrender to Turkish forces, although he did not specify when.

All of those who surrendered have been released following an interrogation by Turkish prosecutors.

The surrender of the so-called 'peace group' comes in the wake of the Turkish government's recent announcement that it will soon unveil a 'democratization initiative' that is designed to give the country's Kurds increased cultural and political rights.

The first group's surrender was orchestrated by the PKK's jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

Ocalan, who was captured in 1999, is currently serving a life sentence on an island prison in Turkey, but continues to exert control over the PKK and Kurdish politics.

The move was welcomed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called it 'utterly positive and a pleasing development.'

'Is it possible not to be hopeful after the picture we saw yesterday...? Something is happening in Turkey, which gives us hope,' Erdogan told a parliamentary group meeting of his Justice and Development (AK) Party.

The PKK has been fighting Turkish forces since 1982, in a conflict that has cost the lives of an estimated 40,000. Although the group originally sought the creation of a separate Kurdish state, it now calls for improved rights for Turkey's Kurds, believed to number between 12 and 15 million.