DHAKA: Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday called for Kurds to hold a congress to bring an end to the 40-year armed struggle in Turkey waged by the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

‘A congress should be organised to bring an end to the 40-year struggle against the Turkish Republic,’ Ocalan said in a message for Kurdish New Year celebrations in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.

It was read out by pro-Kurdish lawmaker Sirri Sureyya Onder, hailing a ‘new era’ between Turkey and Kurds, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1931 HRS, MAR 21, 2015