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ANKARA, July 24 (AFP) - 17h15 - The rebel
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is ready to hand over
a Turkish soldier it kidnapped two weeks ago if the
government provides security guarantees, a
pro-Kurdish news agency reported Sunday.
The decision was taken after calls from "democratic
organisations including Turkish and Kurdish
intellectuals" for the soldier, Coskun Kirandi, to
be set free, said a statement by Koma Komalen
Kurdistan, an umbrella Kurdish group which also
includes the PKK.
The statement, published on the Internet site of the
Germany-based MHA news agency, offered to hand the
soldier over to representatives of the groups which
asked for his release.
"We have completed the preparations to hand over
Kirandi safe and sound on the condition a delegation
comes to the region and a secure environment is in
place," it added.
The statement did not specify which organisations
the PKK deemed fit to hand over the kidnapped
soldier.
The 21-year-old Kirandi was kidnapped while on
furlough on July 11 by PKK rebels who set up a
roadblock in Tunceli province, stopping about 40
vehicles and robbing their occupants.
The rebels led the soldier into the nearby
mountains, triggering a huge security operation by
hundreds of troops, backed by helicopters.
The July 11 incident was the first time in six years
that the PKK had set up a roadblock, a common
practice during the groups's armed campaign between
1984 and 1999 for self-rule in Turkey's mainly
Kurdish southeast which cost some 37,000 lives.
The PKK has intensified its attacks on the army over
the past several months, after it called off a
five-year unilateral ceasefire in June 2004 on the
grounds that steps taken by Ankara to expand Kurdish
freedoms were insufficient.
AFP
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