By STEPHEN KINZER

BERLIN -- Sitting at his sewing machine by a ground-floor window,
a tailor named Ahmet Tuzun senses something he never expected.

Like many Turks who live in Germany, Tuzun keeps in close touch with
political developments back home. He is especially concerned about the
Kurdish war that has been racking Turkey for 15 years. Until now, he
has seen little prospect of peace. Suddenly, however, he has changed his
mind. The Kurdish nationalist movement, he said, now seems genuinely
interested in reconciliation.

"It all began with Ocalan," said Tuzun, referring to the leader of the
Kurdish rebellion, Abdullah Ocalan, who was captured by Turkish
agents this year and has been calling for peace from his prison cell. "Since
his statements, the Kurdish movement has gone through a big change.
They want to stop being a military movement. They seem much more
open to compromise and discussion than they were before."

Interviews with Kurds in Berlin and other European cities suggest that
what Tuzun has seen reflects a profound change of direction for the cause
of Kurdish nationalism. With remarkable unanimity, Kurds say they are
tired of war and no longer want to form their own state.

These views reflect what many Kurds in Turkey also believe. But those
abroad may reflect Kurdish opinion even more completely, because they
are free to express any opinions they like. In Turkey, statements favoring
Kurdish nationalism are punishable by law.

At his trial, which ended in a death sentence that few believe will be
carried out, Ocalan said he wanted to "serve the Turkish state." (An
appeals court upheld the death sentence on Nov. 25, but it is unclear
whether it will be carried out.)

Ocalan asked fighters from his Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, to
withdraw from Turkey "to pave the way for peace."

Later the party's central committee wrote to President Suleyman Demirel
saying it had abandoned its "Cold War-inspired political strategy" and
declaring: "The Kurdish and Turkish people are as inseparable as flesh
and blood."

In October, two groups of guerrillas ceremoniously surrendered to the
Turkish army. They were ordered to do so by their commanders as a
sign of their sincerity.

When Ocalan (pronounced OH-jah-lahn) asserted during his trial that it
was time to end the rebellion in Turkey, many Kurds were shocked. But
since then, most have come to embrace his position.

Part of this change is undoubtedly due to the prestige of Ocalan, by far
the most popular figure among Kurds. But Kurds also say that upon
reflection, they believe the new course makes sense.

"It took some time for us to adjust to it," said Songul Karabulut, 29, who
came to Germany with her family when she was a child. "But in the last
couple of months, just about everyone has come to accept the need for a
new orientation."

Turkish leaders say they will not change their policy toward the 10 million
or more of their citizens who are Kurds. They say the Kurds have the
same rights as other citizens, but to allow them to establish
Kurdish-language schools or television stations is impossible because that
would weaken the unity of the state.

In a statement, Turkish military commanders rejected Ocalan's calls for
peace as "false and deceiving," and asserted, "It is out of the question that
the general staff accept the PKK terror organization as an interlocutor,
discuss its suggestions or make any concessions."

Demirel dismissed the PKK's declared intention to give up its war as a
"routine, seasonal tactical retreat before winter."

Yet Demirel, in a move that would have been unthinkable even a few
months ago, recently received the leaders of Turkey's legal Kurdish
political party, which maintains informal links to the guerrillas.

There are other signs of a political thaw in Turkey. The country's two
leading judges have made unprecedented calls for sweeping political
reform, including an end to the ban on teaching the Kurdish language.

Five leading cultural figures issued a statement calling current policy
toward Kurds "a huge mistake" and urging that Kurds "be given their
rights and dignity." And since the earthquake that devastated Turkey in
August, many citizens who criticized the government's response have
begun demanding a loosening of the political system.

At the Kurdistan Information Center in London, posters depicting
Turkish soldiers as bloodthirsty killers are being taken down.

The director of the center, Mendo Balci, said the posters no longer
reflect Kurdish opinion.

"We were in a revolutionary phase, looking for revolutionary change,"
Balci said. "Now we're taking a different approach. Our goals aren't
territorial anymore, they're political. It's not in the interest of the Kurdish
people to be in confrontation with the whole world by conducting an
armed struggle."

Some Kurds still resist this new approach. They cannot accept what
seems to be Ocalan's embrace of Kemalism, the doctrine of a strong
centralized state that has guided the Turkish Republic since it was
founded 76 years ago by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

"The Kemalist concept, Turkey's vision of the state, and the concept of a
pan-Turkish empire that denies the existence of other peoples, all of
which were previously rejected, are now accepted by the PKK," said
Selahattin Celik, a Kurdish journalist who lives in Cologne, Germany. "In
the past, Kemalism was described as fascistic, but now it's presented as
something good and admirable. Most Kurds simply cannot understand
this, but no one is allowed to raise their voice in opposition to this new
line."

A considerable majority of Kurds seems to have embraced Ocalan's new
position. They see it as a wise reaction to a changed world.

"In the past, I always believed that there should be an independent
Kurdistan," said Kamal Mirawdeli, a Kurdish poet who has lived in
London for nearly 20 years. "My concept has changed. National borders
don't concern me anymore. I agree with Ocalan that our job now is to
help Turkey evolve into a democratic and multicultural state. That isn't
going to happen overnight, but maybe slow change is actually more
lasting and stable."

Kurdish intellectuals have begun saying that Ocalan's call for an end to
guerrilla warfare should be seen not as a surrender, but rather as a logical
progression.

"Naturally this change is very painful to a lot of people, especially those
who have lost sons or brothers in the struggle," said Selim Ferat, who
heads a Kurdish research center in Berlin.

"But we achieved something over these 15 years. When this war began,
no one knew what a Kurd was. Even many Kurds had no idea that they
were Kurds. Now we are aware of our identity and our potential, and
the whole world knows our situation. It's time to move on to a new
phase."