Jailed PKK leader says he is ready for solution with Turkish state: statement

A car passes by a picture of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood, Syria on July 15, 2017. (REUTERS File Photo)

ISTANBUL, August 8 (Reuters): Jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan said he is ready for a solution on the Kurdish issue and that he could stop the conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish militants within a week, his lawyers said in a statement on Thursday.

Ocalan is the founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which launched a separatist insurgency against the Turkish state in the 1984. He has been in jail in western Turkey since 1999.

According to the statement, he also said the Turkish government needed to do what is necessary for the solution to take place and that Kurds do not need a separate state.