Turkey marked 25 years on Saturday since the first Kurdish rebel attacks, with political leaders calling for reconciliation, though the government has yet to offer a new plan for ending the conflict.
Fighting has died down since the 1990s, but the Kurdish conflict remains a drag on Turkey’s drive to modernity and an obstacle to the country’s joining the EU.
The fighting began on Aug. 15, 1984, when separatist rebels attacked police and military units in the southeastern towns of Eruh and Semdinli before fleeing to bases in northern Iraq.
Since then, some 40,000 people have died as the rebels seek autonomy for Kurds concentrated in Turkey’s southeast.
Kurdish activists held a festival on Saturday in Eruh, where extra security forces were deployed.
Speakers appealed for peace, and crowds listened to traditional music at an open-air concert.
Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin called for reconciliation with the country’s Kurdish minority.
“I see a great advantage in putting aside all prejudice,” he said on Turkish TV, dismissing nationalist claims that allowing Kurds to have more rights would “divide Turkey.”
Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay met delegates of 20 non-governmental organizations in Ankara as part of a government effort to rally support for a peace plan that has yet to be announced.
Imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan is expected to release his own peace proposals soon through his lawyers.
On Friday, the prime minister said the “time has come for a radical solution” for ending the conflict, and urged the nationalist opposition to back the effort.
“Turkey has to face this problem and solve it through democracy,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. “We will take steps at any cost.”
The question of how to persuade thousands of rebels to give up their weapons remains in deep dispute. Demands of the rebel PKK include amnesty for its top leaders, but such a deal would infuriate many Turks.
Late Friday, a blast in a trash container killed a night watchman and injured another person in a poor neighborhood of Istanbul.
Istanbul Police Chief Huseyin Capkin said explosives caused the blast, but said it was unclear if it was an act of terrorism.
Kurdish militants have carried out attacks to mark the anniversary in past years, but radical leftist and Islamic groups have also staged bombings.
Turkey has taken some steps to assimilate Kurds, who account for about 20 percent of the population of 75 million and dominate the country’s southeast. In January, the first 24-hour Kurdish-language TV station was launched, and Erdogan spoke a few words in the once-banned tongue.
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