PKK leader urges for ceasefire in Turkey

Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has issued a long-awaited cease-fire declaration that would be a major step towards ending a 30-year conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives in Turkey, Aljazeera reported.

The ceasefire announced on Thursday, which coincides with the Kurdish New Year, or Newroz, also calls for the withdrawal of PKK likely to bases in northern Iraq.

In Ocalan's letter read out by members of parliament, Pervin Buldan, in Kurdish, and Sirri Sureyya Onder, in Turkish, he said: "In the presence of millions of witnesses, I’m telling you, let a new process begin. No to weapons, yes to politics.

"We’re in such a phase that our armed forces should withdraw from the country. This is not an end, this is a beginning. Beginning of a new politics… A new era is starting. This is a political era."

Kurdish legislators has said Ocalan might ask for commissions to be established to properly monitor the ceasefire, and call for safe passage for fighters wishing to leave Turkey.

Erdogan has already pledged that no militant would be "touched if they leave the land".