00:00Turkey's parliament has passed a law to provide a legal framework for the disbandment of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party,
00:07or PKK.
00:08It marks the biggest step yet towards ending a decades-long conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.
00:17The new law gives legal protection to former PKK members who have not committed other crimes.
00:22It also allows some prison sentences for people convicted of PKK membership to be suspended.
00:28The bill was backed by President Recep Tayyip Edrowan's ruling AK Party and its allies.
00:34The move follows a call from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Okalan in February last year for the group to disarm
00:40and disband.
00:42Since then, the process has moved forward in stages.
00:45The PKK announced in May that it would end its armed struggle and disband.
00:49Two months later, a group of its members symbolically burned their weapons at a ceremony in northern Iraq.
00:55The PKK has fought the Turkish state since 1984.
00:59Turkey, the United States and the European Union all classify it as a terrorist organization.
01:04But ending the PKK's armed struggle does not by itself settle the wider Kurdish question.
01:09The law does not address long-standing demands for greater political and cultural rights,
01:15changes to Turkey's anti-terror laws, or the status of Okalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999.
01:21The government has described the process as part of its goal of creating a country free of terrorism.
01:27But Kurdish politicians say lasting peace will require broader political and legal reforms.
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