Leader of PKK in northern Iraq orders militants to halt actions

ISTANBUL

The leader of the the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, Murat Karayılan. Hürriyet photo

The leader of the the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, Murat Karayılan, has ordered the group's militants to halt their actions, Doğan news agency has reported.

However, he did not mention any "withdrawal" in a message he broadcast to militants via walkie-talkie.

The jailed leader of PKK Abdullah Öcalan declared a ceasefire yesterday and called on armed militants to withdraw from Turkish soil, indicating that these moves would mark a milestone for “a new era” and herald the building of a “new Turkey.”

“Today a new era is beginning. A door has been opened from armed struggle to democratic struggle,” he said in the message, which was addressed to more than a million people who had gathered in Diyarbakır to celebrate Nevruz.