AUGUST 20, 2005

Good news for Turkey

The Kurdish rebel group PKK, which is fighting for autonomy in an area of south-eastern Turkey, has used the Grand Prix weekend in Istanbul to announce that it is declaring a one-month ceasefire in its campaign to disrupt tourism in the country. This has been done in recent weeks with a series of small bombs. The move comes after Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made statements suggesting that compromise might be possible.

This is good news for the Grand Prix which can now go ahead without fears of terrorist attacks - at least not from the PKK.