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Kurdish PKK rebels offer Turkey
conditional ceasefire 22.10.2007
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October
22, 2007
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels offered Turkey a
conditional ceasefire on Monday dependant on the the
Turkish military ending attacks against the fighters
and abandoning plans for an incursion into Iraq's
Kurdistan region.
"We are ready for a ceasefire if the Turkish army
stops attacking our positions, drops plans for an
incursion and resort to peace," said a statement
posted on a rebel website by the Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK).
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has
threatened to launch an incursion into Kurdistan
region 'northern Iraq' unless Baghdad clamps down on
the rebels and turns over the PKK leaders it accuses
of masterminding cross-border attacks.
"We are calling for a peaceful solution and
distancing ourselves from violence," said the rebel
statement.
"We are demanding the freedom of political work,
culture and identity rights in accordance with
international charters, and human rights and we are
demanding that the Turkish side allows these Kurdish
rights.
"If Turkey stops attacking us, the battle will stop
and we will start the peace action. We are ready to
start dialogue and we are ready to join the
political process if Turkey give us the chance," it
said.
The PKK statement said the rebels had repeatedly
ceased fire in the past only for the Turkish army
and the government to attack them.
The offer of a ceasefire came the day after 12
Turkish soldiers and 32 rebels were killed in heavy
clashes over the border in
Turkey, further raising tensions between Baghdad and
Ankara.
Turkey says the fighting erupted in a mountainous
region in the southeastern province of Hakkari after
PKK rebels infiltrated from northern Iraq and
attacked a patrol.
The Turkish military said Monday that eight soldiers
were missing after the fighting following rebel
claims that they had captured an undisclosed number
of troops.
Despite pressure from Washington and much of the
international community to hold off on any
incursion, Erdogan says his government is ready to
use parliamentary authorisation -- obtained on
Wednesday -- to send troops into Iraq.
Ankara says some 3,500 PKK fighters are based in
northern Iraq where they are able to obtain weapons
and are supported by Iraqi Kurdish leaders, a charge
the Iraqi Kurdish administration strongly denies.
Faced with rising rebel violence, Turkey says it is
running out of options other than military action,
with neither the United States nor Iraq doing enough
to stamp out the rebel bases.
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using a
Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an excuse to
invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent the
establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish
autonomous region in 'northern Iraq'.
Ankara is anxious to prevent the emergence of a
Kurdish state in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq',
fearing this could fan separatism among its own
large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
The speaker of the Kurdistan parliament, Adnan
al-Mufti said, Turkey is not really after the PKK
rebels but wanted to eliminate the idea of an
autonomous Kurdistan.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the PKK took up arms fighting for self-rule in
Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.
AFP
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
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" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 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.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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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