Turkey: Brother of PKK leader Ocalan calls for return to political solution

Mehmet Ocalan, brother of Abdullah - the leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), called for a return to a political solution in the ongoing conflict between the Turkish government and Kurdish groups, in Diyarbakır on Monday.
Speaking to packed hall, full of Ocalan's supporters, who are on hunger strike to protest his brother's isolation, Mehmet berated the government's efforts, saying "If the government is ready for these projects we can finish this problem in six months. We didn't terminate the previous peace process. The Kurdish problem is a hundred - maybe two hundred - years old. If the government was sincere this problem could have been solved."
He went on to add: "Every day at least thirty people lose their lives. This land doesn't deserve this. Men with a conscience should think about it."
The meeting comes after Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), received his brother as his first visitor since summer 2015. Abdullah is currently serving a life sentence for 'treason' in an island prison close to Istanbul.
Abdullah Ocalan was arrested in 1999 by Turkish security forces in Nairobi, Kenya. He was taken to Turkey where he was sentenced to death for treason and separatism. The sentence was later changed to life imprisonment following Turkey's abolishment of the death penalty to meet criteria for European Union entry.