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ANKARA, Sept 21 (AFP) - 13h04 - The rebel
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has extended a
unilateral ceasefire it proclaimed last month to
October 3, when Turkey is scheduled to begin
membership talks with the European Union, the
pro-Kurdish MHA news agency reported Wednesday.
The announcement, made by KONGRA-GEL, the political
wing of the PKK, said that although Ankara had
failed to respond in kind to the ceasefire, the
extension aimed to prove that the rebels are not
seeking to overshadow Turkey's EU membership
process, as the government argues.
"We call on the government and the prime minister to
make use of this period until October 3 for a
democratic solution" to the Kurdish conflict, the
statement said.
"We do not intend to sabotage Turkey's EU accession
process," it said. "We have always supported the
entry into the EU of a democratic Turkey that has
resolved its Kurdish problem."
Last month, the PKK proclaimed a one-month ceasefire
until September 20, but the Turkish army brushed it
aside and clashes continued in the mainly Kurdish
southeast, where PKK activities are concentrated.
The truce followed a landmark pledge by Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the Kurdish
problem in Turkey would be resolved with "more
democracy" and mounting calls by civic groups on the
PKK to lay down arms.
The PKK statement accused Erdogan of failing to act
on his pledges and the army of launching
"large-scale annihilation operations" against the
guerrillas in the mountains.
It also said the government had failed to ease the
solitary confinement of jailed PKK leader Abdullah
Ocalan, a key PKK demand.
Ocalan has been the sole inmate in a prison island
in northwestern Turkey since 1999, when he was
captured and condemned to death for separatism.
The sentence was later commuted to life in prison
after Ankara abolished capital punishment as part of
a reform drive to align with EU democracy norms.
Pro-Ocalan activists have taken to the streets
across Turkey in recent weeks, with many of the
protests degenerating into violent clashes with
Turkish nationalists and the security forces.
Keen to boost its EU membership bid, Ankara has
ended 15 years of emergency rule in the southeast
and allowed the Kurdish language to be taught at
private courses and used in public broadcasts over
the past several years.
Even though the reforms are believed to have eroded
popular support for the PKK, Kurdish politicians say
Ankara should further expand the minority's
freedoms.
The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey,
the EU and the United States, markedly intensified
attacks on the army this year after calling off a
five-year unilateral truce in June 2004.
Officials have blamed the PKK for several deadly
bomb attacks in Istanbul and in tourist resorts in
the west of the country, but the rebels have
rejected responsibility, putting the blame on a
radical splinter group.
Some 37,000 people have been killed since 1984 when
the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the
southeast.
AFP
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