The Kurdish guerrilla leader, Mr Abdullah Ocalan, in detention in Italy, has defended his cause as a struggle against genocide. He now wants to turn to Europe for help.
Mr Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has fought for 14 years for self-rule in south-east Turkey. Since he was arrested in Rome three weeks ago, he has requested asylum and said he is ready to work to halt terrorism and find a political solution.
"I am applying for political asylum for the following reasons: to avoid the total annihilation of a people through genocide," Mr Ocalan said in the opening lines of his asylum application, published yesterday.
He also said the PKK was going to stop seeking support from Middle Eastern sponsors and protectors, who were interested only in providing aid for armed resistance.
Mr Ocalan said he wanted European countries and institutions to put pressure on Turkey and, through political and diplomatic means, to expose the contradiction of a country knocking on the door of the European Union while alienating itself through its repression of the Kurds.
He said a renunciation of violence held no fears for him, and that it would have been very hard to win a military campaign against Ankara.
Turkey blames Mr Ocalan and the PKK for the more than 29,000 deaths caused by Kurdish fighters and Turkish armed forces in the last 14 years.