TV Offer Heralds Turkish 'Peace' Bid

Broadcasting is to pave the way for a peace settlement in troubled areas of Turkey.
One of the first steps would be to lift a ban on private television channels broadcasting in Kurdish.
Turkey's Government has unveiled an 'historic' offer to end its 25-year armed conflict with Kurdish fighters that has cost more than 40,000 lives.
Besir Atalay, the Interior Minister, told his parliament that he intended to end permanently the conflict with separatists, who are thought to have about 6,000 fighters.
"Our slogan is more freedom for everybody," Mr Atalay said yesterday, outlining what he described as "an open-ended process" to "end terrorism and raise the level of democracy".
The Government would then end a ban on political campaigning in the language, and permit the restoration of Kurdish names to towns and villages given Turkish names since the 1950s.
A committee will be established to address Kurdish concerns that they suffer discrimination.
It may also help Turkey’s application to join the European Union - a consideration that will not have been lost on the Government Separatists led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party - PKK - have made gestures to the Government in recent months, but Mr Atalay’s plan falls short of the independent state many have long sought. However, in the long term, Mr Atalay said, Turkey needed a new "democratic and civilian" constitution to replace one drafted by a junta in 1982.
His speech follows efforts to marginalise support for Kurdish militants, and an unprecedented and open debate about the issue in the Turkish press.
On October 19, in the first sign that the initiative might be showing success, eight PKK members surrendered to Turkish authorities at the Iraqi border, saying that they had come to strengthen the foundations of a peaceful future.
(BMcC/GK)