DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Hundreds of thousands of Kurds rallied here on March 21 in a euphoric show of support for fledgling peace talks between the Turkish government and jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, but a sense of mistrust and belligerence toward Ankara lingered in the festive air.
The huge crowd that packed the venue in Diyarbakir, the largest city of Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, sent out a powerful message re-affirming Ocalan as their leader and endorsing his call on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to “silence the guns” and pull out beyond Turkish borders to pave the way for a negotiated settlement.
