Photo Gallery A Historic Turkish-Kurdish Ceasefire
Kurdish women wave a giant flag of the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) while awaiting a statement by jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan during celebrations of Nowruz, the Persian New Year festival, on March 21 in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir. In the statement, Öcalan called for a ceasefire, raising expectations for an end to the three-decade conflict with Turkey.
Masked supporters of Öcalan read a statement on stage in Diyarbakir. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds cheered and waved banners bearing Öcalan's image when a statement by the rebel leader, held since 1999 on a prison island in the Marmara Sea, was read out by a Kurdish politician.
A demonstrator in Istanbul shows his support for Öcalan and the PKK, which has led the fight for an ethnic Kurdish homeland. Many see the call for a ceasefire as an important step toward ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, divided the country and battered its economy.
