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Turkey's Kurdish rebels declare ceasefire
from today
1.10.2006 |
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QANDIL MOUNTAINS,
Kurdistan-Iraq, September 30,-- The rebel Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) has ordered a unilateral
ceasefire in its 22-year-old war against Turkey,
insurgent commanders told AFP in their remote
mountain base.
Rebel commanders invited reporters to an armed camp
high in the Qandil Mountains of Kurdistan (northern
Iraq) near the borders of Turkey and Iran to
announce their hopes for an end to a conflict which
has left at least 37,000 dead.
"It's very important, but it's not enough," said
Murat Karyilan, the party's second in command,
flanked by military commanders in combat fatigues.
"There's a lot to do from our side and from the
Turkish side."
Karyilan said the only path to solve the region's
problems was now through democratic dialogue between
the Kurds and the governments of Turkey and Iraq,
including northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.
"The cadres and the base camps of the party will
henceforth redirect their efforts to the political
front, to make this decision work," he said, calling
on the United States to join regional governments in
resolving the crisis.
Henceforth, armed PKK units operating in Iraq and
Turkey would no longer launch attacks, he said. He
did not promise to disarm, however, and a statement
from his party said PKK guerrillas would defend
themselves if attacked.
The declaration came two days after jailed Kurdish
leader Abdullah Ocalan appealed to the PKK to call a
ceasefire, and a month after the United States
nominated a general as its envoy to help resolve the
conflict.
The 20-million-strong Kurdish people live spread
around the highland regions of northern Iran and
Iraq, southeastern Turkey and in an international
refugee diaspora. They regard themselves as the
world's largest stateless people.
Their longstanding dream of an independent homeland
has been boosted by the success of Iraq's autonomous
Kurdish region, which escaped Saddam Hussein's
regime a more than a decade ago and stands aloof
from Iraq's civil conflict.
But Ankara has remained opposed to self-rule for
Turkey's Kurds and both Iraq and the United States
have been embarrassed by continuing attacks on
Turkish targets by rebels operating from over the
countries' border.
Since the start of the year, 79 members of the
Turkish security forces and 110 rebels have been
killed, according to an AFP count based on figures
provided by the Turkish army.
Ocalan, in remarks carried through his lawyers,
urged Turkish authorities not to consider the
declaration a mark of "weakness", but as an occasion
for reconciliation between Turks and the country's
Kurdish minority.
"The chance could be the last one," Ocalan warned.
This was rejected by Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, who demanded instead Kurdish
separatists lay down their arms, saying: "A
ceasefire is done between states. It is not
something for a terrorist organisation."
The PKK's announcement followed a decision by the
United States on August 30 to name an special envoy
to coordinate the fight against the rebel group with
Turkey, General Joseph Ralston, a former NATO
commander.
During a visit to Ankara on Wednesday, the US envoy
said Washington was urging Iraq's embattled regime
to take "visible" measures against Iraq-based PKK
rebels in order to eliminate the threat they pose.
The rebels took up arms for self-rule in Turkey's
predominantly Kurdish southeast in 1984 and since
then the PKK -- classed as a terrorist gang by the
European Union and the United States -- has called
no less than five truces.
The most recent was in 1999 after Ocalan was
arrested. The PKK took up arms again in 2004 and has
significantly increased its attacks.
Saturday's announcement came as Turkey's Anatolia
news agency reported that a Turkish soldier had been
killed by an alleged PKK land mine in the mainly
Kurdish southeast of the country.
The incident took place in a rural area near the
Iranian border as soldiers were carrying out a
search operation. A second soldier received light
injuries.
AFP
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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