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ANKARA, Aug 23 (AFP) - 18h53 - Turkey should
press ahead with its struggle against armed Kurdish
rebels who have intensified anti-government attacks
in the past months even though they recently
announced a unilateral ceasefire, the country's top
consultative body said Tuesday.
The National Security Council "underlines the
importance of effectively continuing the struggle
against terrorism in line with the consitution and
other laws, making full use of international and
inter-agency facilities," said a statement issued
after a four-and-a-half-hour meeting.
The council's call followed an announcement by the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) last week
that its rebels would observe a unilateral ceasefire
until September 20 to give Ankara time to expand the
rights of Turkey's Kurdish minority.
The PKK, blacklisted by the United States and the
European Union as a terrorist organisation, said it
had been encouraged to declare a truce following a
landmark pledge by Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan to resolve the Kurdish problem with
"more democracy".
The council insisted that the government should
place priority on "preserving the independence of
the nation and the indivisibility of the country".
It called for efforts to increase economic, cultural
and social development in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast, which remains the most
underdeveloped corner of Turkey largely due to
long-running fighting between the army and Kurdish
rebels.
The PKK first took up arms against Ankara in 1984
for self-rule in a conflict which has claimed some
37,000 lives.
Following the capture of its leader, the group
announced a unilateral ceasefire in 1999 in a bid to
seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict and
demanded that Ankara expand Kurdish freedoms.
But the rebels called off the truce in June 2004 on
the grounds that reforms undertaken by Ankara in
order to boost its EU membership bid were
insufficient.
The security council was once the most powerful
institution in Turkey through which the military
wielded heavy influence in domestic politics, but it
has since had its wings clipped through EU-minded
reforms.
The council has been transformed into a think tank
where civilians outnumber soldiers almost 19 to one
and which, since October last year, has had a
civilian -- rather than a general -- as its
secretary-general.
AFP
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