ANKARA, Turkey ? A pro-Kurdish party on Wednesday said it is ending its four-month-old boycott of Turkey's parliament, even as tensions grow over a surge in attacks by Kurdish separatist rebels.
The lawmakers of the Peace and Democracy Party have been refusing to take an oath of office following their election in June as they pressed for the release of five pro-Kurdish legislators held on charges of rebel ties. They also wanted another Kurdish politician, Hatip Dicle, whose election was canceled due to a conviction for rebel links, to be allowed to take office.
Selahattin Demirtas, chairman of the party, however, said Wednesday that his party decided to end the boycott to be able to work for peace more effectively. The party has 29 lawmakers, and those who remain free will take their oath when the 550-seat the parliamentary session opens Saturday, he said.
The announcement came shortly after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on "all political parties to join preparations on the constitution with equal representation." The government has said drafting a new constitution to replace the current one, a legacy of the 1980 military coup, would improve rights and freedoms.
But the pro-Kurdish party insists the right to education in the mother tongue must be recognized as a constitutional right ? a demand that the Turkish government fears could deepen the ethnic divide in the country.
Kurds make up some 20 percent of Turkey's 74 million people.
The government has taken steps toward wider Kurdish-language education by allowing Kurdish-language institutes and private Kurdish courses as well as Kurdish television broadcasts. But it won't permit lower-level education in Kurdish.
The European Union, which Turkey is striving to join, has pushed Erdogan's government to grant more rights to the Kurds. But EU countries also have urged Kurdish lawmakers to distance themselves from the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and the EU.
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in the southeast since 1984 and keeps bases in northern Iraq.
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