ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s parliament was set to open debate Monday on a draft bill that would introduce a conditional amnesty for thousands of Kurdish militants, offering them a pardon-like mechanism in a bid to advance the government’s peace initiative with their insurgent group.
Last year, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, ended its decades-long armed campaign against the Turkish state, declaring a decision to disarm and disband as part of the peace effort. The move came in response to a call from its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan.
