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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Aug 13 (Reuters) - The
brother of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah
Ocalan has formed a breakaway group after leaving
the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a
statement on a Kurdish Web site said on Friday.
Turkish commandos captured Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya
in 1999. He is the sole inmate of an island prison
south of Istanbul, serving a life sentence since his
death penalty was commuted.
His guerrillas took up arms against the Turkish
state in 1984 and more than 30,000 people have died
in the conflict, but violence subsided after his
capture. The latest move appeared to cement a recent
split within the group.
The new grouping, including other senior former PKK
members, will seek to win the freedom of Osman
Ocalan's brother and does not aim to damage the PKK
but to advance its cause democratically, the
statement said. The Nasname Web site, believed to be
linked to former PKK rebels, carried a statement
calling on members of Kongra-Gel, the name recently
adopted by the PKK, to join the new Patriotic
Democratic Party.
"The aim is not to destroy Kongra-Gel but to
overcome the impasse in the Kurdish liberation
movement... and to carry the values of its struggle
towards a democratic solution," it said.
The authenticity of the statement could not be
verified, but observers familiar with the subject
believed it was credible.
It was signed by 40 members of the new party who
attended a founding conference earlier this month,
with Osman Ocalan heading the list.
The PKK ended a six-year unilateral ceasefire at the
start of June and there has been a resurgence of
violence since.
Osman Ocalan reportedly opposed ending the ceasefire
and fell out with the rebels holed up in northern
Iraq, seeking refuge in the northern Iraqi city of
Mosul with some other senior PKK members.
Media reports say Abdullah Ocalan has condemned his
brother for leaving the PKK.
POWER STRUGGLE
A Turkish police spokesman said on Friday the PKK
was engaged in an internal power struggle
illustrated by this week's deadly bomb attacks on
hotels and a gas depot in Istanbul.
Two people were killed and 11 injured in the
bombings at two hotels in Turkey's largest city on
Tuesday and a previously unknown Kurdish group
claimed responsibility for the blasts.
State-run Anatolian news agency reported deputy
police chief Ramazan Er as saying they had
established that the PKK was behind the blasts and
was using such acts to distract attention away from
an internal conflict.
"There is a power struggle in the PKK terror
organisation. They are using various sections (of
the group) in (militant) acts to cover up this
struggle," he told a news conference.
Another senior police official said this week a
split within the PKK had led one faction to start
planning urban attacks. Its strategy has mainly
focused on clashing with security forces in rural
areas of the mainly Kurdish southeast.
A group called the Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK)
said it was behind the Istanbul attacks. It was not
clear whether it was tied to the PKK but its
statements were released by the Europe-based
Mezopotamya News Agency, known to have PKK links.
The TAK group criticised other Kurdish organisations
for being "passive" in their resistance to the
Turkish state, pledging more "radical resistance".
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