Since Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Diyarbakir on Nov. 16, "We will see the people in the mountains coming down, the prisons emptied," there has been an intense debate as to whether the government is preparing the legal ground for declaring a general amnesty. The speculation was also hyped when Erdogan’s guest in Diyarbakir, Massoud Barzani, the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government president, said that the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan would also benefit from this amnesty and be freed.
Yesterday, Nov. 19, however, Erdogan denied any truth to such speculation. "It looks like I was not clear in my expression. I have said in the past numerous times that there is no such thing like general amnesty in our agenda," the prime minister said. "I was talking about my dreams, [and] you are speaking of general amnesty. There is no such thing."
