Turkey mainly, Iraq and the Kurds (2006-2014)

[davidbfpo]

Turkey is holding talks with the jailed head of the PKK Kurdish militant group, Abdullah Ocalan, to push for its disarmament, officials say.....The Turkish prime minister's top political adviser said the government had concluded that it would be unlikely to defeat the outlawed PKK militarily.

Prime ministerial adviser Yalcin Akdogan said the intelligence services were holding discussions with Ocalan:

The goal is the disarmament of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party)...The government supports any dialogue to this end that could result in a halt to violence. You cannot get results and abolish an organisation only with armed struggle.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20880944

Interesting timing when one looks at the international aspects of the conflict next door in Syria.

[davidbfpo]

A Turkish newspaper report, which opens with:

Terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah calan stated that the era of armed struggle to achieve the political goals of the Kurds is over. He was speaking in a meeting with two Kurdish lawmakers, who made rare a visit to the PKK leader, being held on an island prison, on Thursday, signaling that Turkey is negotiating with the terrorist organization over ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands over the past three decades.

Ocalan in jail since 1999 has power:

his order, made after a visit from his brother, to end a 68-day hunger strike by PKK terrorists in prisons across Turkey was immediately obeyed.

Link:http://www.todayszaman.com/news-303039-.html

It is curious that an imprisoned leader can make such decisions. How a nation and its opponents in an insurgency / terrorist campaign use law enforcement, with imprisonment, as a tactic to get results is an perplexing question. It took a long time for the UK to think through a LE approach in Northern Ireland, even then it took PIRA just as long. Both Italy and Spain have used the tactic with great effect, but is little understood or documented IMO in English.