PKK struggle

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organization in the European Union, was to announce the roadmap for a solution to the group's decades-long struggle against Ankara on Saturday, pro-Kurdish media reported.

But the group said Friday the plan had not yet been finalized and would take a few more days to complete. Cengiz Kapmaz, spokesman for the defense team for jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been incarcerated on Imrali island since his 1999 conviction, confirmed that the roadmap would need more time.

"Ocalan's lawyers have not finished writing up his statements," he said. "The lawyers will return to the island on Wednesday."

The PKK plan, devised by Ocalan, coincides with efforts by Ankara to draw up Kurdish-friendly policies in an attempt to win over the minority population and encourage the PKK to give up its armed struggle.

Progress on the matter is considered integral to Turkey's bid to join the European Union.

"By the end of the year we will begin with those measures of the Kurdish initiative that can be implemented," said Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip on Friday.

Although the Turkish government has been urged to consider the Ocalan plan, Ankara has repeatedly refused to meet with officials from the PKK, which it, too, considers a terrorist organization.

The PKK is seeking autonomy for the Kurdish minority in Turkey, estimated at around 12 million people mainly in the east and southeast of the country. According to estimates, the conflict has claimed as many as 45,000 lives.

dfm/AFP/Reuters

Editor: Nick Amies