Jailed Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK] leader Abdullah Ocalan’s Newroz message to a large crowd in Diyarbakir on March 21 revealed some significant overlaps with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s lecture in the same city at Dicle University on March 15 asking Kurds to give their full support to the government’s new initiative and aiming to end the bloodshed in the country.

Swinging between the fifth century B.C. and the present, Davutoglu chose to bypass the Republican era as he laid out his vision of building a new way forward in shaping the minds, culture and politics of the region. He referred heavily to the Islamic architecture of mosques that symbolized the unity of people in these lands. Ocalan, too, talked about ancient times and referred to the three Abrahamic religions in reference to respect and harmony that existed for centuries on the Anatolian peninsula. Surely, it was quite a thought-provoking reference from Ocalan to have religious prerogatives in his message as his rebel movement is structured around the Marxist-Leninist ideology.

“Humanity is in need of a big restoration. Our region is in need of a big restoration. And our country, which is at the center of all the big restorations, is trying to go through a big restoration internally. We need to discover the value earned since ancient times,” Davutoglu lectured on March 15. “Either we will unite as Turks, Kurds, Bosniaks and Arabs and walk toward our goals with a new understanding of politics, or they will try tearing us to shreds and splitting us into small pieces.”

Falling short of calling a cease-fire or laying down arms, Ocalan asked the “armed members to move out of Turkey’s borders” on Thursday [March 21] as Kurds marked the beginning of their new year. His remarks complemented what Davutoglu said earlier. “For the last two centuries, the imperialist powers injected problems among Arabs, Turks, Persians and Kurds as they imposed superficial borders by creating nation states. These exploitative regimes, oppressive and rejectionist policies outlived themselves,” Ocalan said. “Peoples of the Middle East and Central Asia are now waking up. They are returning back to their origins. They want to stop the wars and conflicts against each other … People who filled the city squares in their millions now want peace as they celebrate Newroz.” He moved on to say, “The truths in the messages of Prophet Moses, Prophet Jesus and Prophet Mohammed are being realized today with more good news, and mankind is trying to win back what it has lost.”