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Turkish PM urges rebels to lay down arms

ANKARA, Feb 29, 2008 (AFP) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Friday urged Kurdish rebels to lay down their arms and said Ankara was "mature enough" to embrace "all kinds of political differences."

"One cannot reach anywhere by the way of terror. Give up this wrong path... without causing more pain to your mothers and fathers," Erdogan said in a televised address.

"Our democracy is mature enough to embrace all kinds of differences and all kinds of political opinions as long as they are on legal ground," he said, speaking after Turkish forces wrapped up a week-long offensive against the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.

Erdogan urged Turkey's sizeable Kurdish community to pursue their demands through politics, while urging unity.

"If we are to get rid of terror, we believe that the door of democratic politics should be kept open as a way of seeking rights and solutions," he said.

PKK violence, however, will not be tolerated, he stressed, adding: "We will continue to fight terrorism with determination."