Turkey has started taking steps towards to resolve the Kurdish issue by granting more rights for the Kurds.

The country's Kurdish minority are hoping that the government's recent efforts will change what they believe has been decades of discrimination.

They also hope this will mean an end to the violent Kurdish resistance movement.

Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan worker's party, the PKK, is said to have drawn up a "road map" for peace.

His suggestions are supposed to include that Turkey should take the lead in solving the Kurdish issue that spans several countries. He even supposedly set conditions for the disarmament of the PKK.

Overall, Kurds are expected to be granted broader cultural and political rights, but the government's possible solutions to the Kurdish issue exclude any possibility of changing the constitution, offering autonomy for Kurds or even amnesty for the rebels.

Can Turkey achieve peace with the Kurdish regions? Is there a chance for real peace? And what will it take for the Turkish government and the PKK to reconcile, after decades of armed conflict?

Inside Story discusses with guests Suat Kiniklioglu, a spokesperson for the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Feriydun Rafiq Hilmi, a Kurdish analyst, and Mumtaz Soysal, the former foreign minister of Turkey and currently the leader of the Independent Republican Party (BCP).

This episode of Inside Story aired from Tuesday, September 1, 2009.