ANKARA
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu welcomed Saturday the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party’s statements on the issue of disarmament of terrorist group.
Addressing the ruling Justice and Development Party’s youth congress in the capital Ankara Saturday, Davutoglu said, “The solution process, which began with President Erdogan's speech in Diyarbakır in 2005, has now taken a new shape."
The solution process was officially launched in 2013 to end the decades-old conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, in Turkey's eastern and south-eastern regions.
Sirri Sureyya Onder, Deputy of Peoples' Democracy Party, or the HDP, earlier in the day announced that PKK had been invited (by imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan) to hold congress in spring this year to make the historic decision of finding common ground on the issue of laying down arms.
"The invitation is a historic declaration of intention to resolve the issue through democratic means instead of an armed struggle," Onder said.
About the invitation, Davutoglu said it would pave the way for a democratic policy in Turkey.
The PKK has fought for an independent Kurdish state since 1984, and its terrorist attacks have claimed around 36,000 lives in Turkey.
Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union list the PKK as a terrorist organization.
