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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, June 16 (Reuters) - A
leading member of Turkey's banned Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) was quoted on Thursday as rejecting an
appeal from leading Turkish intellectuals for the
rebel organisation to lay down its arms.
A group of 100 intellectuals including best-selling
novelist Orhan Pamuk issued a statement on Wednesday
demanding the PKK halt all violence "without
preconditions" and urging Ankara to seek a lasting
peace in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.
"You cannot ask just one side to disarm ... You have
to ask it of both sides. Only then would it make
sense," the Europe-based Mezopotamya news agency,
which is close to the rebels, quoted senior PKK
member Murat Karayilan as saying.
He said the government bore responsibility for the
continued violence because it had showed no interest
in a dialogue.
Dozens of people have died in the past few months in
clashes between the guerrillas and Turkish security
forces, stirring fears of a return to the kind of
large-scale violence which plagued southeast Turkey
in the 1980s and 1990s.
Ankara blames the PKK for the death of more than
30,000 people since the organisation began its
violent campaign for an independent Kurdish state in
1984.
The violence largely subsided after the 1999 capture
of rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is now serving
a life prison sentence. But clashes sharply
increased again after the PKK called off a
unilateral five-year ceasefire in 2004.
Turkish newspapers on Thursday quoted EU ambassadors
based in Ankara as expressing concern over the
increased violence in southeast Turkey.
The papers said the envoys had urged Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan during a dinner earlier this week not
to rely only on military means to tackle the
problems of the southeast but to devise economic
policies to cut poverty and unemployment.
In response to the envoys' criticism, the deputy
head of Turkey's powerful General Staff, General
Ilker Basbug, said the prime responsibility of the
security services was to fight "terrorists" and he
vowed that they would continue to do so.
Reuters
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