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ANKARA, June 16 (AFP) - 11h31 - Turkey's leading
Kurdish politicians on Thursday joined calls on
Kurdish rebels to lay down their arms, following a
marked increase in deadly violence in the country's
southeast after the militants called off a five-year
ceasefire.
The appeal came in a joint statement by 14 prominent
Kurdish figures, including Leyla Zana, a former
lawmaker and internationally renowned campaigner for
Kurdish rights, and Tuncer Bakirhan, the head of
Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party, DEHAP.
"We are also worried over the atmosphere of
increasing confrontation and we hope the clashes
will end in the shortest possible time," the
statement said.
The group also lent support to an appeal issued by
150 Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals in Istanbul
Wednesday, calling on both the separatist Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) and the government to end the
conflict.
"We want the PKK to end armed action immediately and
unconditionally.
"We demand that the government makes the necessary
legal arrangements so that durable peace is
established and everybody can participate in
democratic social life," the statement said.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed some
37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK took up arms
for self-rule in the country's predominantly Kurdish
southeast.
Following the capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan
in 1999, the group announced a unilateral ceasefire,
paving the way for a relative calm in the
impoverished region.
The rebels, however, called off the truce on June 1,
2004 on the grounds that reforms undertaken by the
government to expand Kurdish freedoms were
insufficient.
The European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join,
has also urged Ankara to take measures to curb the
renewed violence in the southeast.
AFP
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