|
ANKARA, Aug 18 (AFP) - 13h54 - Turkey has asked
Belgium to arrest a senior member of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who is expected to
announce a ceasefire by the group in a press
conference in Brussels Friday, a senior Turkish
diplomat said Thursday.
Zubeyir Aydar "is an outlaw and is the head of a PKK
organisation. We have asked them (Belgian
authorities) to treat him accordingly," the
diplomat, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
"He is wanted by the Interpol on a red bulletin," he
added.
Aydar became one of the first Kurdish lawmakers to
be elected to the Turkish parliament in 1991 as a
member of the Democratic Party (DEP) which was
banned by Turkish authorities three years later for
links with the PKK.
He escaped abroad following the ban and has often
surfaced in Europe as well as nothern Iraq where
thousands of PKK rebels have found refuge since 1999
when the group called a unilateral ceasefire and
withdrew from Turkish soil.
Aydar is currently the head of KONGRA-GEL, which
claims to be the political wing of the PKK.
The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group also by
the United States and the European Union, has
stepped up violence in the past several months after
it called off the truce in June 2004 on the grounds
that Ankara's steps to expand Kurdish freedoms were
insufficient.
The group has said it will consider a new ceasefire
if the army also stops military operations against
the rebels.
Following Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan's landmark pledge last week to resolve the
Kurdish conflict with "more democracy", Aydar is
expected to announce a new truce by the PKK in a
press conference in Brussels set for Friday,
according to Turkish newspapers.
AFP
Top |
® 