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KHUNERA, Iraq - In the jagged mountains here
along the Iranian border, a leader of the Kurdish
rebels who have been battling Turkish soldiers for
two decades vowed to keep up his fight until Turkey
agrees to open a dialogue with militants.
But it is a call that Turkey refuses, saying all the
guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK,
must surrender or die. Recently, the fighting has
intensified.
Since May, 30 soldiers and 24 rebels have been
killed as the rebels stepped up attacks,
concentrating more on bombings than direct assaults.
On Sunday, a bomb planted by a rebel splinter group
injured 18 Turks and three tourists in Cesme, a
popular Turkish resort.
Both sides are looking to Washington to help create
a solution to a two-decade fight that has left some
37,000 people dead and parts of southeastern Turkey
in ruins.
Turkish generals say the United States, which
controls Iraq, must do more to stop rebels from
crossing the border and carrying out attacks.
Murat Karayilan, the military leader of the PKK,
says that Washington, which is pressing for more
democracy in the Middle East, must allow the Kurds a
voice and vows to keep fighting on.
"We seek peace, but Turkey seeks war and wants our
surrender," he said in an interview with The
Associated Press "It wants to get rid of us
entirely. The Kurds' resistance will continue."
He also said that the rebels, who were once fighting
for a Marxist Kurdish state in the southeast of
Turkey, now want to be part of a democracy.
"We want to live in a democratic way and establish a
democratic Kurdish movement while giving up
extremist socialist ideas," Karayilan said. "We also
notice a change in American policies, which now
support democratic governments. America came to
change the Middle East, and Kurds have a great role
in this matter."
Turkish officials have dismissed that claim as a
mere change in tactics by the group, which the
Turkish government and the United States consider a
terrorist organization.
Turkish land forces commander Gen. Yasar Buyukanit
recently rebuffed a suggestion that the army end its
offensive against the rebels.
"In Turkey, no one in their right mind could say
yes" to that request, the Cumhuriyet newspaper
quoted Gen. Yasar Buyukanit as saying last month.
"Our struggle against terrorism is continuing and
will continue."
Turkey considers all of its Muslim citizens to be
Turks and has rejected Kurdish aspirations as an
attempt to break apart the country. It was illegal
in Turkey to speak Kurdish until 1991, and
broadcasting in Kurdish only began in 2004.
Statements from the rebels are rarely printed in
Turkey, where such comments could be considered as
aiding a terrorist organization, and rights
activists have been jailed for saying that there
should be a negotiated solution to the fighting in
the southeast.
The PKK announced a unilateral cease-fire in 1999
shortly after its leader Abdullah Ocalan was
captured but annulled it in 2004, saying that Turkey
had not responded.
During a recent visit, Kurdish fighters escorted a
journalist along a curvy, five-hour nighttime route
to meet Karayilan. The visit included a stop at the
PKK's "Martyr's Cemetery," which contains the graves
of 25 fighters killed in battle and a large picture
of Ocalan.
"We no longer believe only in armed struggle as we
did in the past," Karayilan said. "Today we believe
in the diplomatic and political struggle in order to
obtain our legitimate rights."
The presence of an estimated 3,500 PKK fighters in
Iraq, which effectively remains under U.S. control
more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion,
complicates American efforts to rebuild this country
after decades of dictatorship, war and the ongoing
insurgency. There are believed to be some 2,000 PKK
fighters in Turkey.
Confident of the safety of their mountain redoubt,
the PKK fighters appeared to enjoy good relations
with local villagers and Iraqi arms merchants who
sell them weapons. As a concession to Iraqi
sensitivities, however, PKK fighters routinely move
about only at night.
"We want to solve the problem through dialogue,"
Karayilan said. "But if they attack us, we will
defend ourselves."
AP
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