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ISTANBUL: Turkish lawmakers voted through a bill on Monday offering limited amnesty for Kurdish fighters, a key step in the peace process that seeks to end decades of deadly violence.
The law is Turkiye’s first legislative step towards ending the conflict and comes 18 months after Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), urged his followers to disarm.
The text, which passed by 468 votes in favour to 88 against, with six abstentions, envisages a return to civilian life for some of the PKK fighters who lay down their weapons without granting a total amnesty.
But crucially, it does not specify what will become of Ocalan, 77, who has spent the past 27 years being held in solitary confinement on Imrali prison island near Istanbul.
