By STEPHEN KINZER

ISTANBUL, Feb. 9 -- Kurdish rebels who have been fighting for
self-rule in Turkey since 1984 announced today that they had given
up their war and would press their cause "within the framework of peace
and democracy."

Since their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was captured a year ago, he has
repeatedly urged his fighters to lay down their weapons. The statement
issued today by his Kurdistan Workers Party was the first that officially
declared their willingness to do so.

The statement said that the party held an "extraordinary congress" at an
undisclosed location last month and that delegates "confirmed the
decision of the party leader to stop the armed struggle."

"It is in everyone's interest," the statement said. "It means paving the way
toward peaceful and democratic unity in the Middle East."

The rebels added, however, that their decision was "inseparable" from
the fate of Mr. Ocalan, who has been sentenced to death. But the
government has said it will not carry out the sentence before the
European Court of Human Rights has reviewed it. The review is widely
expected to take at least a year.

Mr. Ocalan's group is believed to have 4,500 active fighters. Most are
considered loyal to him and therefore quite likely to accept the new
decision. But a few have denounced him as a turncoat and promised to
continue fighting. Combat has subsided in the mostly Kurdish
southeastern provinces. The statement suggested that the region might
slowly return to a semblance of normality after a conflict that has taken
more than 30,000 lives.

There was no sign that the authorities were prepared to accept the
disarmed rebels in the political system. Military commanders and their
civilian supporters, including Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, have rejected
Kurdish nationalists' recent overtures. They consider the rebels terrorists
and insist that they surrender unconditionally and face prosecution.

There have been a few vague signs that the climate may be starting to
change. In a recent case before the State Security Court, where
suspected rebels and their sympathizers are tried, military judges allowed
a Kurdish woman who spoke no Turkish to be accompanied by a
translator. Lawyers said that was an extraordinary concession, because
using Kurdish in courts and other public offices is normally forbidden.

Foreign Minister Ismail Cem recently amazed many people here when he
told an interviewer that he believed that Kurdish-language television
broadcasts, which are forbidden, should be allowed.

Several dozen Kurdish intellectuals and politicians announced last month
that they planned a new political party. They said it would provide Kurds
with a new way to express their views in the political system.

The existing pro-Kurdish party, People's Democracy, shocked the
establishment in April by winning mayoral races in nearly every important
southeastern city. Prosecutors are seeking to shut down the party on the
grounds that it supports separatism.

Kurds traditionally use the word Kurdistan to describe the region of
Turkey where they live, along with mainly Kurdish adjoining regions of
nearby countries. But that word is anathema in Turkey, where the
authorities interpret it as an implicit call for separatism.

Evidently reacting to that concern, the rebels announced in their statement
that they would drop the word from the names of their various wings.
The fighting wing, officially known as the Kurdistan People's Salvation
Army, is now to be called simply the People's Salvation Army. A political
arm, the Kurdistan National Salvation Front, has become the Democratic
People's Union.

Political analysts said the country would have to recover from the trauma
of war before former rebels could be welcomed into the political arena.

"It will happen, because it has to happen," predicted a retired diplomat
who spent years defending his country's uncompromising position against
Kurdish nationalism. "But it will take time."