AP Photo / E. Wayne Ross

Two video grabs show the hot-air balloon crashing near Göreme National Park in central Turkey on Monday.

ISTANBUL- A hot-air balloon flying over a tourist destination in central Turkey crashed after colliding with another balloon on Monday, the Anatolian news agency reported.

A Brazilian passenger was killed and 24 other people were injuried when the accident occurred near the city of Nevsehir in Cappadocia, an area famous for its geological features called fairy chimneys. 

Balloon rides are a popular way to see the cone-like formations, created by the erosion of volcanic ash around them.

Nine Turkish citizens were arrested Sunday in connection with the car bomb attacks that killed 46 people in a town near the Syrian border on Saturday.

The attacks, in the town of Reyhanli, were carried out by a group linked to Syria's intelligence service, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, Besir Atalay, told reporters.

However, Syria rejected Turkey's allegations that it was behind the bombs.

"Syria did not and will never do such an act because our values do not allow this. It is not anyone's right to hurl unfounded accusations," Syrian Information Minister Omran Zubi was quoted as saying on state media.

The car bombs increased fears that Syria's civil war was dragging in neighboring states despite renewed diplomatic moves towards ending two years of fighting in which more than 70,000 people have been killed.

Reyhanli, in the southern Hatay province, is in an area known to be home to many refugees. There are more than 300,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey, most of them in camps along the volatile border

It has also become a logistics base for rebels fighting Syria’s president Bashar Assad.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said those involved were thought also to have staged an attack on the Syrian coastal town of Banias a week ago in which at least 62 people were killed, Reuters reported.

"The attack has nothing to do with the Syrian refugees in Turkey, it's got everything to do with the Syrian regime," Davutoglu said in an interview on TRT television, Reuters said.

"We should be careful against ethnic provocations in Turkey and Lebanon after the Banias massacre," he said. 

Related: Turkey PM: Red line has been crossed

This story was originally published on Sun May 12, 2013 9:10 AM EDT

Turkey's prime minister is charging that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its people and has called on the U.S. to take stronger action, he told NBC News' Ann Curry in an exclusive interview Thursday.

"It is clear the regime has used chemical weapons and missiles," Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Erdogan gave no specifics about when and where the weapons were allegedly used, but he said he believes President Obama's "red line" for the U.S. in deciding whether to take action has been crossed.

"It has been passed long time ago," said Erdogan, who is meeting with Obama on May 16.

"We want the United States to assume more responsibilities and take further steps. And what sort of steps they will take, we are going to talk about this."

Erdogan cited as evidence the "remainders of missiles" — at least 200 by his count — that he believes were used in chemical attacks, along with the injuries of Syrians brought over the Turkish border for medical treatment.

"There are patients who are brought to our hospitals who were wounded by these chemical weapons," he said.

Erdogan rejected any suggestion that the rebels might have used chemical weapons.

"There is no way I can believe in this now. First of all, how are they going to obtain this? And who will give this to them?" he said.

"But if it exists, we are against this...We are against whoever holds the weapons."

A member of the United Nations' commission on Syria claimed this week "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof" that the rebels has used sarin gas, but the panel quickly backed away from those claims -- adding that it had "not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict."

The White House — which has said it has varying levels of confidence that sarin was used on a small scale in Syria — quickly threw cold water on the suggestion that the rebels were to blame.

Erdogan said he could not confirm that sarin was used in Syria. "We don't have such a finding yet," he said.

Asked whether Turkey would support a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone in Syria, Erdogan said, "Right from the beginning...we would say 'yes.'"

He denied that Turkey has provided military support to the rebels but said his country has spent nearly $1 billion on aid to 300,000 refugees from Syria.

"We keep the open door policy because they are fleeing oppression." Erdogan said.

Erdogan said he has heard reports that Assad's wife and children have already left Syria, their lives "ruined" by him.

"The thing he should do now is to leave Syria," he said. "Sooner or later, the opposition are going to get him."

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story included a response from Erdogan to a two-part question about whether he would support a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone and American troops in Syria. The translator only asked Erdogan about the no-fly zone, however, and the story has been changed to reflect that.

Ammar Cheikhomar / NBC News

The Old Market in Antakya, Turkey, has become a frequent stop for jihadists on their way to or from Syria, where they are battling the regime of President Bashar Assad.

ANTAKYA, Turkey -- In the Old Market of the ancient city of Antakya, there is a palpable sense of unease.

For wandering among the ordinary shoppers and tourists drawn to this border town -- known in antiquity as Antioch -- are hardened fighters like Abu Muntaser Alliby.

“I wish to die in Syria while I'm defending the oppressed there,” said the 27-year-old Islamist fighter from Libya, a veteran of three six-week tours in Syria who adopted a false name when he took up arms.

Antakya has gone from a tranquil stop on the tourist trail sometimes called "Tuscany with minarets" to a key staging post for the thousands of foreign fighters who have flocked to wage jihad against President Bashar Assad in Syria, bolstering the ranks of al Qaeda and Taliban-style militias.

The presence of Alliby and others like him has sparked angry protests by local people in the city. But others have profited, with shops springing up to supply the new demand for camouflage clothing, communication devices, backpacks and other equipment.

Their presence has also created a headache for the rebel Free Syrian Army. While they are allies in the struggle to topple Assad, their goal of establishing one Islamist state covering the entire Arab region is far removed from the FSA’s hopes of a democratic Syria.

And they are also cited as the main reason why the U.S. and other Western countries have not supplied the rebels with arms -- as some may end up in the hands of Alliby and his comrades.

Some analysts now believe this policy has inadvertently helped groups like Jabhat al-Nusra -- officially allied with al Qaeda in Iraq -- and the Syrian Islamic Front, an umbrella body of disparate groups with a similar ideology to the Taliban. At the moment, they're the only ones getting a steady stream of money and weapons and therefore are more attractive to would-be fighters than the poorly armed FSA.

But, listening to Alliby, it’s easy to see why the Obama administration is nervous and Israel might decide to take military action.

“We all have the same goal, which is to bring down the Syrian infidel regime and raise the banner ‘no God but Allah’ in Syria,” he said as he looked through the market for a backpack.

Ammar Cheikhomar / NBC News

The Old Market in picturesque Antakya has become a haunt for jihadists on their way to or from Syria. Many in the town are upset by their presence, but the fighters are buying, so vendors are selling.

“I guess that this is  the goal of every Muslim in Syria. ... We are all Muslims and we all ask for the jihad and hope to die while we are defending our religion,” he said. “I said goodbye to my parents and friends. I don't want to go back. I hope that I die in Syria or in Palestine.”

“I think any mujahed [jihadi] in Islam wishes to fight in Palestine against the Jews,” he added. “And I hope that we can have a center of Muslim mujahedeen [holy warriors] in Syria to proceed from Syria to liberate Palestine. Jihad starts from Syria and ends in Jerusalem.”

Alliby, who said he fought in Libya during the revolt against Moammar Gadhafi during which one of his brothers was killed, added that while the Libyan dictator was bad, Assad was significantly worse.

“He is not a man; he is a monster who doesn't know the meaning of humanity and doesn't respect anyone in his dirty war -- not the young, not the old, no woman and no child,” he said. “We see what is happening daily in Syria and how the people suffer there. I mean killing and destruction and displacement.”

Alliby said he was a member of a jihadist Islamist organization. He refused to name the group, but he was unusually open. Most jihadists refuse point-blank to speak to Western media.

In addition to jihadists, Antakya has also drawn journalists from around the world. One hotel is known as the BBC’s base, another is home to al-Jazeera. The jihadists, too, have their favorite hotel at a discreet distance from media camps.

It is at the bargain end of the market, but -- unlike the cheapest establishments -- provides an Internet connection and breakfast.

The Free Syrian Army might not run to such luxuries. Its fighters literally count their bullets and struggle to buy equipment in marked contrast to the well-funded, well-armed Islamist groups.

Luay Mukdad, political and media coordinator for the Free Syrian Army, admitted some FSA groups were “short on weapons, short on money and communications, so that’s what’s forced them to cooperate” with extremist fighters.

“Let me be honest, as long as Jabhat al-Nusra is holding their ground against Bashar Assad, there’s no problem,” he said.

Al-Nusra was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. in December and formally announced its alliance with al Qaeda in Iraq last month.

Mukdad said the Islamists fighters’ strength had been exaggerated in the media, but he warned that unless the West helped the FSA they would become stronger and more dangerous -- for Syria and the Middle East. While the Islamists hate the West and shun their support, the FSA believes it cannot win without its aid.

Ammar Cheikhomar / NBC News

Though angry protests have sprung up against Islamist fighters stopping in Antakya, so have shops to supply the new demand for camouflage clothing, communication devices, backpacks and other equipment used in war.

“We want Syria to be a civil country and we want to build our democracy,” he said, envisioning a country with “respect for all people” after the downfall of Assad.

Mukdad said the FSA would not allow extremists to take over the country.

“If Jabhat al-Nusra choose to be like al Qaeda or something and start trying to force people to do all the extremist things, like to force … the girls to put on the hijab or to do anything, the Free Syrian Army will protect the Syrian people,” he said. “Make us stronger. We want to protect our country and not let these people steal our future.”

Nadim Shehadi, a Middle East expert at the U.K.-based Chatham House think tank, said the best solution to the civil war would be an international military intervention, but he accepted that was not going to happen. The second-best option was arming the FSA, he said.

“What’s pushing people to join the jihadists is they are well-funded, well organized and they have the weapons,” he said. “They get them from private sources in the Gulf mainly. The others [non jihadist groups], they have to count their bullets.”

But Shehadi said that most ordinary Syrians now believed that the U.S. was on their side and the idea of Taliban-style rule was “not something that would fly” in ethnically diverse Syria.

“America used to be unpopular on the Arab street, when it used to support dictators. What’s emerging now is … an indication of American soft power,” he said. “[Syrians] want to be more like America than they want to be like Iran, Gaza or North Korea.”

Ammar Cheikhomar / NBC News

Vendors at the Old Market have found that jihadists coming in and out of Syria can be good customers. The militants are generally well funded compared with mainstream rebel forces.

Professor Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Police Violence at King's College London, carried out a study that estimated there were 5,500 foreign fighters in Syria, most from the Middle East and North Africa.

Like Mukdad and Shehadi, he said the West should arm the FSA to provide a counter to the hard-line Islamist or Salafist groups and accept this would mean some weapons would fall into their hands.

"We're so afraid of funding the wrong people ... but the absence of our funding has actually made that more likely because the only money that comes through right now is this hard-core Islamist money," Neumann said.

He added, however, that all was not what it seemed in Syria.

"There has been in the past a huge incentive [for commanders] to pretend they are Salafist in order to get some weapons," he said. "There are perfectly secular commanders who've grown beards and who are flying the black flag of Islam on YouTube just in order to qualify for funding from Kuwait."

Ian Johnston reported from London.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

/

A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

Related:

From Dallas to Damascus: The Texas 'straight shooter' who could replace Syria's Assad

'Maybe my friends will kill me': Inside a Syrian city split between rival militias

Full Syria coverage from NBC News

ISTANBUL, Turkey – May Day protests in Istanbul turned ugly when Turkish riot police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who defied a ban on demonstrations.

Ulas Yunus Tosun / EPA

Protesters clash with Turkish riot police during the May Day rally in Istanbul on Wednesday.

Thousands of police were deployed across the city Wednesday, closing off the roads around Istiklal Street – a major pedestrian street that leads to Taksim Square, Istanbul's version of New York's Times Square. 

Authorities had denied trade unions permission to march on Taksim, saying construction work there would make any gathering of protesters there too dangerous. 

At least 28 people were injured in clashes with police, including an AFP news agency photographer, and 72 arrests were made, according to the BBC.

On a typical day hundreds of thousands of people walk down Istiklal Street – the most popular pedestrian street in the city, lined with 19th century buildings and full of outdoor restaurants, bars and boutiques. 

Ozan Kose / AFP - Getty Images

Masked police officers take cover behind shields during clashes at a May Day demonstration in Istanbul.

But on Wednesday afternoon, riot police blocked the entrances to Istiklal and the roads around it.  Public transportation was disrupted across the city.  Tourists visiting the usually bustling commercial area had confused looks on their faces as they dragged heavy suitcases down side streets looking for the all too few available taxis.

Feahat Sevgi, a 21-year-old worker at a usually bustling coffee shop on Istiklal bemoaned the heavy police presence. “It was a very bad business day,” Sevgi said. “Usually we have hundreds of people coming here to get coffee, but today it was just a few. It’s not good for us.”

Police Officer Selcuk Oney, who was on the street near Taksim, defended the forces heavy presence across the city saying, “What we did today was to protect ordinary people.” 

Bulent Kilic / AFP - Getty Images

Protesters chant slogans as they stand at the windows of the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey building in Istanbul on Wednesday.

May Day protests had been banned in Turkey for decades, until they were reinstated in 2010. The day had a troubled history – 37 people were killed during May Day protests in Taksim Square in 1977 when unknown assailants fired shots in the air, sparking panic. But in 2010 the government declared the day an official holiday and agreed to allow protests in the square under tight security.  

NBC News Petra Cahill and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

• Photo Blog: May Day protests kick off worldwide

REUTERS/Paul J. Richards/Pool

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talks to reporters after finding out that the aircraft had a mechanical failure before take off, at the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland April 6, 2013.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will press Turkey on Sunday to quickly normalize relations with Israel, keep its border with Syria open to refugees and improve ties with Iraq, a senior U.S. official said. 

Kerry arrived in Istanbul some two weeks after U.S. President Barack Obama brokered a rapprochement between Turkey and Israel, whose relations were shattered by the killing of nine Turkish citizens in a 2010 Israeli naval raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. 

The rapprochement could help regional coordination to contain spillover from the Syrian civil war and ease Israel's diplomatic isolation in the Middle East as it faces challenges posed by Iran's nuclear program. 

Despite Obama's having pulled off a diplomatic coup on March 22 - a three-way telephone call with the Israeli and Turkish prime ministers, who had not spoken since 2011 - Washington has some concerns that Turkey might be backtracking on the deal. 

Israel bowed to a long-standing demand by Ankara, once its close strategic partner, to apologize formally for the deaths aboard the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara. It was boarded by Israeli marines who had intercepted a flotilla challenging Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had agreed to conclude an agreement on compensation and that he and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan agreed to normalize ties, including returning their ambassadors to their posts. 

A senior U.S. official told reporters traveling with Kerry that he "will encourage Turkey to expeditiously implement its agreement with Israel and fully normalize their relationship to allow for deeper cooperation between the two countries." 

While the official denied the United States was worried the Turkish government might be backing away from the deal, another U.S. official earlier this week said Washington was concerned. 

Kerry will also raise Syria and Iraq during his talks on Sunday with Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul, his first stop on a 10-day trip to the Middle East, Europe and Asia. 

One of the underlying motivations for the Israeli-Turkish rapprochement, at least on the Israeli side, has been a desire to secure allies in the region as the Syrian civil war churns into its third year. 

Kerry's message in Istanbul will include "reiterating the importance of keeping the borders open to Syrians fleeing from violence," the senior U.S. official told reporters with Kerry. 

The official said this was a reference to reports, which Turkey denied on March 28, that it had rounded up and deported hundreds of Syrian refugees following unrest at a border camp. 

Witnesses said hundreds of Syrians were bussed to the border after clashes in which refugees in the Suleymansah camp, near the Turkish town of Akcakale, threw rocks at military police, who fired teargas and water cannon. 

Turkey's foreign ministry said 130 people, identified as being "involved in the provocations," crossed back into Syria voluntarily, either because they did not want to face judicial proceedings or because of repercussions from other refugees. 

The incident highlighted the strain that the exodus from Syria's civil war is placing on neighboring states. 

Since the revolt in Syria began two years ago, more than 1.2 million Syrians fleeing violence and persecution have registered as refugees or await processing in neighboring countries and North Africa, according to U.N. figures. 

They include 261,635 in Turkey, mostly staying in 17 camps, many of them teeming. 

Kerry also plans to nudge Turkey to improve ties with Iraq, which is troubled by efforts by its autonomous Kurdistan region, where ethnic Kurds have administered their affairs since 1991, to sell energy to Turkey. 

The Iraqi central government argues that this would deprive it of oil revenues that belong to Iraq as a whole.

Lego

Birol Kilic, chairman of the Turkish Cultural Association of Austria, says the Lego play set modeled on the Jabba The Hutt alien's fictional home was culturally insensitive.

MUNICH – Danish toy maker Lego plans to stop selling a model of the “palace” of slug-like Star Wars character Jabba The Hutt after complaints that it resembles a revered mosque, according to a group that raised the grievance.

Birol Kilic, chairman of the Turkish Cultural Association of Austria, said Monday the play set modeled on the obese alien’s fictional home was culturally insensitive.

Photo by Julian Finney / Getty Images

Birol Kilic, chairman of the Turkish Cultural Association of Austria, said the Lego version of Jabba The Hutt's palace resembles Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, a historic mosque that became a model for other centers of Islam and is now a museum.

“This does not belong in children’s bedrooms,” he said. “And the minaret-like tower features machine guns. Children will become insensitive to violence and other cultures.”

After a meeting between his organization and the company last week in Munich, Germany, Lego promised to stop selling the play set, Kilic said.

Lego posted on Twitter Monday that it has always intended to stop selling the item at the end of the year. “We only keep a product in the assortment for a few years and it was scheduled to exit in 2013 from launch,” the tweet said.

However, there was no mention of those original plans in a January press release which said: “The LEGO Group regrets that the product has caused the members of the Turkish cultural community to interpret it wrongly.”

Roar Trangbæk, a Lego spokesman, on Monday denied that the group had anything to do with their decision.

“The decision to terminate this particular product is not based on any dialogue with the mentioned community," Trangbæk said. "We regret the misinterpretation but we fully stand behind the product.”

Trangbæk also said that it is the company's policy not to design models that depict religious structures. 

The Danish toy giant has in recent years made building sets modeled on hit movies including Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars.

In the 1983 science-fiction blockbuster “Return of the Jedi”, Jabba uses Princess Leia as his slave at the palace.

Lego

Birol Kilic, chairman of the Turkish Cultural Association of Austria, says the Lego play set modeled on the Jabba the Hutt alien's fictional home was culturally insensitive.

Kilic believed that the Lego version, aimed at 9- to 14-year-olds, resembles Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, a historic mosque that became a model for other centers of Islam and is now a museum in the Turkish city.

Kilic said his organization was notified of the issue by an outraged Austrian father, whose sister had given the Lego set to his son last Christmas. The father returned the toy to the store, Kilic said, and the Turkish Cultural Association petitioned Lego to drop the play set from its line-up.

Kilic said the issue was not merely cultural, but also a reminder that parents should be more thoughtful about what toys their kids play with.

“We’re not the Taliban of Vienna,” he said of his independent, Vienna-based organization with about 700 members, “but we do give thought to our country and our continent.”

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 1, 2013 10:44 AM EDT

Danny Gold

Flags with the face of imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan dot the crowd at Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakir, Turkey, on Thursday.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey -- The dancing, singing and picnics marking Kurdish New Year were last week punctuated by a message from an imprisoned icon, whose image graced thousands of T-shirts and flags at the celebration.

Guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's statement expressed a willingness to halt violence and negotiate with the Turkish government. It also offered a glimmer of hope that a conflict which has claimed 40,000 lives since 1984 may soon come to an end.

Shortly after Ocalan's announcement was read to hundreds of thousands of Kurds gathered in this southeastern city for Newroz festivities, Turkish fighter jets boomed overhead. To many, their message was clear.

"We trusted the Turkish government before," said Ilyas Dalgia, a 27-year-old from a nearby village who works in tourism. "This is the last time, and only because Ocalan says."

For now, most Kurds will put their trust in the man that many call "Apo," or uncle, and who has been held in an isolated prison on an island for the past 14 years.

Ocalan is leader of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), designated as terrorists by the United States, European Union and Turkey.

His statement called for a new era of negotiations with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and offered a cease-fire and the withdrawal of guerrilla fighters to outside Turkish borders. The move comes after a particularly bloody year in the insurrection, which is one of the world's longest-running conflicts.

Yet in the streets and political offices in the Kurdish region, heavy skepticism remains as to the extent to which the Turkish government is willing to commit. Thirty years of fighting and generations of oppression have left the Kurds with very little trust in the government, and repeated failures in past negotiations have left a bitter taste.

The Kurds are an ethnic group which lives mainly in an area straddling the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Iran and Iraq officially recognize internal regions as Kurdish.

They make up an estimated 15 million of Turkey's population of around 80 million people. They have long suffered discrimination and oppression at the hands of the Turkish government.

While Ocalan once called for the establishment of a Kurdish country, the PKK has tempered demands to greater autonomy, including constitutional rights allowing Kurds to openly express their cultural identity.

According to Kendal Nezan, president of the Kurdish Institute of Paris, the Kurds have fought various powers throughout history -- from the ancient Assyrians to the Ottoman Empire -- to create an independent Kurdistan, but the last Kurdish principality collapsed in 1847. He describes the Kurdish people as a "victim of ... geography, of history."

Massacre
At 27 years old, Ilgias has never known peace times in the southeast region of Turkey. Like most Kurds his age, he has friends who have either gone up to the mountains to join the guerrillas or been imprisoned. "If this chance does not go well, one million will go to the mountains," he says with the typical bombast of young men.

The sentiment, though, is echoed by many in the region who feel that this is the last in a string of many chances for peace. Many are asking whether this is just one more mark in an endless cycle of unfruitful peace talks.

Previous efforts have failed, having catastrophic results. In 1999, Ocalan issued a similar call for withdrawal, and hundreds of Kurdish guerrillas were massacred as they crossed into Iraq. For some, these incidents speak louder than statements from Erdogan.

Danny Gold

Journalist Ozgur Amed is not optimistic about the peace process.

"It won't be so easy. Maybe something will change, but I don't believe the government. If they want (to make peace), they can do it easily," said a 26-year-old local journalist who goes by Ozgur Amed.

Amed has been arrested three times and currently awaits sentencing on two trials, a fact of life he finds so commonplace it takes three days of conversation for him to bring it up. In 2012, Turkey was ranked number one by the Committee to Protect Journalists in imprisoning journalists after jailing dozens of Kurds for alleged ties to terrorism.

Like many others in Diyarbakir last week, Amed had to flee his village as a child after Turkish forces razed it for alleged support of terrorists. During the 1980s and 1990s, thousands of villages were deserted as the war raged. 

Despite his skepticism, he still thinks the people have little choice but to cling to the prospect of peace. "In Diyarbakir, the people are tired. Their neighbors, their families are in prison," he added. "They're so tired. "

In recent months, violence between the PKK and the Turkish government reached the highest point in at least decade. In a November report, the International Crisis Group estimated that 870 people had been killed in the conflict in the past 18 months. In late December 2011, the Turkish military bombed a group of Kurdish smugglers it mistakenly thought were guerrillas crossing the Iraq border. Thirty-four civilians were killed and massive protests, often violent, rocked the country. Later in the year, hundreds of Kurdish prisoners waged a 60-day hunger strike that only ended when Ocalan called it off.

With the January assassinations of three Kurdish women in Paris, one a founder of the PKK, it seemed as though 2013 would proceed in the same manner. Yet the past few months have been marked by progress.

The Turkish government has openly acknowledged that it has been negotiating with Ocalan. It has allowed the Kurdish language to be spoken in courts and allowed the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the most powerful Kurdish political party, to meet with Ocalan. Prisoners on both sides have been released.

Danny Gold

Firat Anli, a local politician, was recently released after serving three years in a Turkish jail. "When you are working for human rights, the government says you are a terrorist," he said.

Firat Anli, mayor of a municipality in Diyarbakir, was released in February from a Turkish prison after serving three years on terrorism charges. In recent years, the Turkish government has imprisoned thousands of activists, journalists, lawyers and politicians on charges that they were connected to the outlawed Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), an umbrella organization of Kurdish parties that oversees the PKK. "When you are working for human rights, the government says you are a terrorist," he said.

So many of his colleagues had been arrested that Anli had actually called the police department two months earlier to request that they not come to his house if they planned to arrest him, but rather call and he would turn himself in. His request was ignored, but Anli was happy that his children were sleeping. He says he now feels like a foreign person in his own city.

"We are living in a tragedy," he said. "We grew up with 30 years in war. This has given us trauma. Forgetting this is not so easy. No one can tell us to forget."

'We want to believe our eyes'
Still, Anli maintains a cautious optimism for peace. He brings up Nelson Mandela as an example, saying that now the legal, democratic means are the only way. He is hesitant, though, of being too optimistic until concrete steps are taken. "We don't just want to believe our ears, we want to believe our eyes," he said.

Anli says that PKK fighters will not immediately come down from the mountains and become farmers simply because Turkey has said it wants peace.

"This doesn't mean the PKK and Ocalan will give up their guns," he said. "In the Middle East, if you have no guns you have no power, and you will be destroyed."

Abdullah Demirbas, mayor of another municipality in Diyarbakir, spoke of instability in the Middle East -- especially in Syria, where a Kurdish militia affiliated with the PKK has gained a foothold -- of contributing to the change of heart of both parties regarding a peaceful solution. "Both the Turkish side and the PKK have realized it's impossible to make progress by killing," he said.

Danny Gold

A young boy wraps a flag with the face of imprisoned Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan across his back at a Newroz festival in the Kurdish city of Batman in southeast Turkey.

For Demirbas, the halting of violence is especially urgent. One son is about to join the Turkish military, as service is mandatory. Another went to the mountains to join the PKK four years ago. Every time he hears a Turkish military jet roar overhead, he fears it is on its way to kill his son. He says his heart is "crushed in three parts," one in the mountains, one in the military, and one in the jails with many of his colleagues and friends. 

A day before Ocalan's announcement in Ali Pasa, a poor neighborhood whose narrow streets and strong PKK support usually deter police from entering, a group of tough looking young men loitered by a small park. Graffiti swearing allegiance to the PKK and "long live Apo" littered the walls. The young men said they would only believe Turkey wants peace when Apo is free.

Teyfik Karakoc, 50, lingered outside a small shop nearby. He, like the others, has seen his share of suffering and is ready for it to be over.

"Our hope is to stop the killing," Karakoc said. "All of us, like everyone, we want peace, but we don't see anything." He then paused as a Turkish military jet flied overhead, drowning out his words.

"It is not so easy to say we forgive you," he added, as the jet disappeared.

Related:

After decades of oppression, Kurds get taste of freedom as Assad's troops flee

'Pushed aside': Turkey's Kurds lose hope

This story was originally published on Wed Mar 27, 2013 4:29 AM EDT

Larry Downing / Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama ended his Middle East trip with a visit to the ancient city of Petra, Jordan, Saturday.

PETRA, Jordan -- President Barack Obama marveled at the sights of Jordan's ancient city of Petra on Saturday as he wrapped up a four-day Middle East tour by setting aside weighty diplomatic matters and playing tourist for a day.

The visit followed a trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories that was capped by Obama's brokering of a rapprochement between Israel and Turkey, but which offered little more than symbolic gestures toward Middle East peacemaking.

Before heading to Petra, Obama used his stop in Jordan to ratchet up criticism of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but he stopped short of promising military aid to Syrian rebels to help end a two-year-old civil war that has claimed 70,000 lives.

U.S. officials privately voiced satisfaction with the results of Obama's first foreign trip of his second term, but the president's aides had set expectations so low that it was not hard to proclaim it a mission accomplished.

Shifting into sightseeing mode on Saturday, Obama flew by helicopter to Petra and took a walking tour of the restored ruins of a city more than 2,000 years old which is half-carved into sandstone cliffs.

Ordinary tourists had been cleared out for the president's visit, and guards with assault weapons dogged his every step.

"This is pretty spectacular," the president, wearing sunglasses, khaki trousers and a dark jacket, said as he craned his neck to look up at the Treasury, a towering rose-red façade cut into a mountain. "It's amazing."

The U.S. president arrived in Jordan on Friday after an unexpected diplomatic triumph in Israel, where he announced a breakthrough in relations between Israel and Turkey after a telephone conversation between the countries' prime ministers.

Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu apologized on behalf of his country for the killing of nine Turkish citizens in a 2010 naval raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, and the two feuding U.S. allies agreed to normalize ties.

The 30-minute call was made in a runway trailer at Tel Aviv airport, where Obama and Netanyahu huddled before the president boarded Air Force One for a flight to Jordan.

The rapprochement could help Washington marshal regional efforts to contain spillover from the Syrian civil war and ease Israel's diplomatic isolation in the Middle East as it faces challenges posed by Iran's nuclear program.

Larry Downing / Reuters

Obama, left, looks at the Treasury while he receives a tour of the ancient historic and archaeological site of Petra on Saturday.

During his visit, Obama appeared to have made some headway in easing Israelis' suspicions of him, calming their concerns about his commitment to confronting Iran and soothing his relationship with the hawkish Netanyahu.

Obama attempted to show Palestinians he had not forgotten their aspirations for statehood but he left many disappointed that he had backtracked from his previous demands for a halt to Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

The president offered no new peace proposals but he promised his administration would stay engaged while putting the onus on the two sides to set aside mutual distrust and restart long-dormant negotiations - a step the president failed to bring about in his first term.

Muhammad Hamed / Reuters

Members of the U.S. Secret Service Counter Assault Team survey a path after Obama walked through it during his tour of the ancient historic and archaeological site of Petra on Saturday.

As Obama's critics were complaining that his Middle East trip was heavy on symbolism and lacking in substance, the last-minute move toward Israeli-Turkish reconciliation gave his aides a chance to tout a tangible achievement.

On the last leg of his trip, Obama promised further humanitarian aid in talks with Jordan's King Abdullah, a close ally, as the economically strapped country grapples with a refugee crisis caused by Syria's civil war.

Obama also used the opportunity to underscore U.S. wariness about arming rebels fighting to overthrow Assad, despite pressure from Republican critics at home and from some European allies to do more.

He warned that a post-Assad Syria could become an "enclave" for Islamist extremism and insisted it was vital to help organize the Syrian opposition to avoid that, but he stopped short of announcing any new concrete steps.

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