Eight Turkish Kurd rebels based in Iraq have surrendered, becoming the second such group to turn themselves in since the government pledged in July to boost political rights to end a 25-year separatist conflict, Reuters reported.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels were being questioned by a prosecutor in the city of Diyarbakir after surrendering on Wednesday in the town of Silopi on the Turkish side of the border with Iraq, court officials said.
The group escaped from camps in northern Iraq, defying rebel leaders' orders, where most of the PKK's 3,000 or so fighters are based, and have told authorities that "a large number" of other rebels want to return to Turkey, security sources said.
When eight PKK members returned to Turkey with the PKK's permission on Oct 19, tens of thousands of supporters streamed to the border to welcome them, waving flags and chanting pro-PKK slogans. Those scenes prompted Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to delay further PKK-approved returns.
The PKK has dropped its historical demand for an independent homeland and now seeks greater political rights for Turkey's estimated 12 million Kurds, about 15 percent of the population.
The PKK wants a full amnesty for all its fighters and leaders before giving up its weapons in a war that has claimed 40,000 lives, mainly Kurdish, since 1984.
Erdogan and the military have ruled out such an amnesty, and only low-level rebels can benefit from immunity laws.
The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, has praised Erdogan's efforts to end the conflict. His so-called democratic initiative aims to expand cultural and political liberties to address decades of grievances from Kurds who say they have faced state-sanctioned discrimination and violence.