[Arab News] Turkey's government on Wednesday rejected a demand by a pro-Kurdish party to move the imprisoned Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan from a prison island and into a house arrest, indicating the government is not ready for any major concessions even as it seeks to reconcile with minority Kurds."Our answer is very clear. Such a thing is out of question," Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin told news hounds.
"It is not possible under existing laws."
The demand by pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party, the leading Kurdish political movement in the country, was also echoed by Ocalan's Kurdish rebels.
Meanwhile,
...back at the ranch...
a court in the southeastern city of Siirt ordered 13 Kurds jugged Wednesday, pending trial on charges of membership in the youth wing of Ocalan's Kurdish rebel group, the Anatolia news agency said Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and the European Union, took up arms in 1984 to seek an independent Kurdish state. It has since changed demands and says it is fighting for an autonomy within Turkey.
Ocalan is serving a life sentence on the prison island of Imrali. He was captured in Kenya in 1999, before a Turkish court sentenced him to death, which was later commuted to life in prison.
While Turks consider Ocalan responsible for nearly 40,000 deaths since the conflict began, he is still revered by his Kurdish supporters who often brace festivities with police for carrying his posters or shouting his name, which is illegal in Turkey.
The government has taken several steps to improve the rights of Kurds, including allowing a Kurdish-language television broadcast but Kurdish politicians insist on broader rights such as education in Kurdish. Turkey opposes this out of fear that it could divide the country along ethnic lines. Kurds comprise up to 20 percent of the country's 74 million people.
On Monday, PKK called off a unilateral six-month-long cease-fire, accusing the government of not responding to their demands -- including improvement of Ocalan's prison conditions and an end to military operations. It also called for an end to prosecution of dozens of elected Kurdish mayors on charges of separatism.
"The present situation is a no-solution situation," the rebel group said in a statement e-mailed to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Wednesday. It said that only the government was benefiting from the lull in the fighting in the run up to general elections in June.