Jailed Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan called Thursday for a ceasefire, telling his fighters to lay down their arms and withdraw from Turkey, raising hopes for an end to a three-decade conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives.

"We are at a stage where guns should be silenced," Ocalan said in a letter written from his isolated island prison cell and read out by a pro-Kurdish lawmaker to vast crowds in the mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks published Wednesday that his controversial comments branding Zionism a crime against humanity had been misunderstood.

Erdogan, who has often attacked Israeli policies, triggered a storm of protest about his comments on Zionism at a UN forum in Vienna last month.

Assailants on Tuesday fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the headquarters of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party and hurled two hand grenades at the Justice Ministry's parking lot, slightly wounding one person, officials said.

Interior Minister Muammer Guler said no one was injured in the attack on the ruling Justice and Development Party headquarters, while the spouse of a Justice Ministry employee was treated for a slight injury in the second assault.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out on Sunday a general amnesty for Kurdish rebels amid renewed peace talks between the country's secret services and jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.

"We are not entitled to pardon murderers. We will not interfere in such a thing," Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

The lack of clear leader among Syria's opposition is no reason to maintain support for the "cruel" regime of President Bashar Assad, Turkey's prime minister said Wednesday.

"The international community thus far unfortunately has not taken the kind of position it was expected to take," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a U.N. event in Vienna.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that his country will "not remain silent" over Syrian President Bashar Assad's "crimes" against his own people.

"Every day a large number of innocent children and women fall dead in Syria," Erdogan said in a speech at the Government Communication Forum in the United Arab Emirates.

Turkey's new constitution will reduce the political influence of the once-powerful military in order to steer the EU-hopeful country more on the path of democracy, a parliamentary source said Friday.

The army, considered the self-appointed guardian of Turkish secularism, has intervened in politics since 1960 and has staged four coups. Since coming to power in 2002, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has taken steps to curb the power of the military.

Chancellor Angela Merkel will embark on a two-day visit to Turkey starting Sunday, her spokesman said, taking with her a delegation of German business chiefs and visiting German troops.

On February 24, Merkel will visit German military stationed in the southeastern city of Kahramanmaras, Steffen Seibert told a regular government briefing here.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the people of the Kurdish-majority southeast on Sunday to support new peace negotiations with outlawed rebels.

"We have initiated a process... to give a chance to a political solution. As long as you stand behind us, we will tackle this problem determinedly," Erdogan told party supporters in the town of Midyat, where the population is a mix of Kurds, Turks and Arabs.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that a powerful blast in a minibus on the Syrian border which killed 14 people was a bomb attack.

"A vehicle loaded with bombs was able to reach our customs gate because the customs gate on the Syrian side is not working and is not being controlled," Erdogan told parliament after Monday's incident.