Kurdish rebels said they would on Wednesday release eight Turkish captives to a delegation of pro-Kurdish party members as part of a renewed push for peace with Turkey.
"The prisoners will be freed and handed over to a delegation on 13 March, 2013," an armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
The release was initially expected to take place Tuesday but was delayed due to "technical reasons", according to the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).
The delegation led by the BDP has already travelled to the northern Iraqi city of Arbil for the expected release, a representative from the party told the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency.
Representatives from the interior ministry and two non-governmental groups were also in Arbil for the release, which both sides say should be interpreted as a confidence building measure in new efforts to end the 29-year-old Kurdish insurgency.
"We hope the powers longing for peace and democracy will see the gesture and speed up the steps for peace," BDP representative Cemal Coskun told Firat.
Ankara also confirmed that the eight captives, which include troops and civil servants, are expected to be set free on Wednesday and taken to Turkish soil, where their families are waiting to greet them.
The promised release follows a thinly-veiled call from the jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, who said last month that both sides held "prisoners" and that he hoped to see them "reach their families".
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said the initiative should be regarded as "a gesture of goodwill" in the ongoing process while he ruled out speculations that the government made secret concessions for the release.
"The process is going just fine... There is big public support, expectation and hope," Atalay was quoted as saying by the state-run Anatolia news agency.
Peace talks resumed late last year between Ocalan and the Turkish state with the ultimate aim of ending the nearly three decades of violence which has claimed around 45,000 lives since the PKK took up arms against Ankara in 1984.
Ocalan, in jail for 14 years for treason, is expected to call on his outlawed PKK to abide by a ceasefire starting March 21, the Kurdish New Year.
13 Mar, 2013
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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/2013/03/13/Kurdish-PKK-rebels-set-for-historic-hostage-release.html
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