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Iraq-based PKK Kurdish rebels offer
ceasefire to Turkey
24.8.2006
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Sulaimaniyah,
Kurdistan-Iraq, August 24, -- Iraq-based Kurdish
separatists from the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party)
have offered a conditional ceasefire to Turkey, one
of the rebel group's leaders said yesterday. "We are
ready to observe a ceasefire and opt for a peaceful
and democratic settlement to the Kurdish issues in
Turkey," the group's second-in-command, Murat
Karayilan, told AFP
He said the offer came in response to "many requests
by the government of Kurdistan of Iraq and the other
Kurdish circles, and responding to the US State
Department."
"There must be a political project so that we can
start dialogue," Karayilan added. "We are ready for
a ceasefire on September 21 coinciding with World
Peace Day. Turkey should be ready to respond and
flexible in this regard," he added.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki on Saturday
assured Turkish leaders that his country will not be
a sanctuary for the PKK. "We will not allow Iraq to
serve as a base for the PKK," Maliki reportedly told
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a
telephone conversation.
Maliki also indicated that Iraq would continue to
work with the United States and neighbouring Turkey
in its fight against the outlawed PKK, considered a
terrorist organisation by Ankara, Washington and the
European Union.
Turkey last month threatened to intervene militarily
at the Iraqi border against PKK camps there if
Baghdad and Washington failed to take action. Turkey
has long complained about the PKK using camps in
Kurdistan (northern Iraq) as rear bases for its
attacks in southeast Turkey, where it is fighting
for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Thousands of PKK members have settled in northern
Iraq's Kurdistan region since 1999, when the group
declared a ceasefire after the arrest of the
separatist movement's chief, Abdullah Ocalan, who is
serving a life prison sentence.
The ceasefire was broken in June 2004. Fighting
between Turkish security forces and PKK rebels has
claimed more than 37,000 lives since the start of
the insurrection in 1984. Karayilan made a similar
offer in June last year, saying "We appeal to the
Turkish government, asking it to end military
operations in order to open the path of dialogue,
and we are ready, on our side, to decree a
ceasefire."
AFP
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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