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Former rebel leader says Kurdish PKK
rebels have left Iraqi Kurdistan
30.11.2007
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November
30, 2007
KOI-SANJAQ, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Turkey's Kurdish separatists who have found haven in
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' in their fight for
autonomy in the mainly Kurdish southern Turkey have
returned to their homeland over the past two weeks
and Iran-based rebels have taken their place, the
brother of the rebel group's jailed leader said.
A spokesman for the Kurdistan government in the
self-ruled Kurdistan region could not confirm Osman
Ocalan's claim that the members of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK,
had withdrawn, but said Thursday the government
would not accept "any armed struggle to be launched
from our territories against any neighboring
country."
Ocalan, the younger brother of the jailed PKK
founder Abdullah Ocalan, told The Associated Press
that members of an Iranian-based rebel offshoot have
replaced the rebels based in Turkey. |
Osman Ocalan |
"The PKK fighters have evacuated their posts in
Iraq's Qandil mountain chain, and gone to Turkish
Kurdistan," he said, adding that the PKK fighters
were largely replaced by fighters from the anti-Iran
Free Life Iranian Kurdish Party.
Relations between Iraq and Turkey have grown
increasingly strained in recent months over a
Turkish threat of a cross-border incursion against
the rebels. The tension reached a breaking point
after an ambush by rebel Kurds left 12 Turkish
soldiers dead on Oct. 21.
Turkey massed tens of thousands of soldiers on the
border and shelled the frontier region, hitting
deserted villages in some cases. On Nov. 4, rebels
freed eight soldiers captured in the raid and the
situation has eased somewhat, but Turkey continues
to call on Iraq and the United States to move
decisively against rebel bases in Kurdistan
'northern Iraq'.
The United States and Iraq have pressured Turkey to
avoid a large-scale attack on rebel bases in
Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', fearing such an
operation would destabilize what has been the
calmest region in the country.www.ekurd.net
And there have been signs that popular support for
the PKK rebels among Iraqi Kurds is weakening,
threatening supply lines and hideouts.
The village of Koi-Sanjaq, 60 kilometers (40 miles)
west of the Iranian border, lies beyond a Kurdish
government checkpoint, and forces there refuse to
allow journalists and supplies to pass.
"We cannot even bring in a sack of rice; true, there
are fighters in our region, but they are far from
our villages," one villager complained. "They are
the reason we live in terror."
The 60-year-old man, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he feared retribution, said the
Iranians shelled the area and the villages now fear
a Turkish air attack.
"We cannot sleep because of the frequent roaring of
airplanes overhead and all along the Qandil
mountains," he said. "We are in the pincer of the
hammer and the anvil."
Osman Ocalan, however, insisted the PKK still has
the support of ordinary Kurds in Kurdistan northern
Iraq' and said the rebels were leaving "to ease the
burden" on the Kurdistan regional government, which
has been pressed on all sides — by its U.S.
supporters, Iraq's central government and Turkey —
to move against the separatists.
Jabar Yawar, a spokesman for Kurdistan's Peshmerga
Regional Defense Forces and a former guerrilla
fighter himself, said the government could not say
whether the PKK had left because they were "not a
licensed party."
"But for us, as a government, we do not accept any
armed struggle to be launched from our territories
against any neighboring country," he said.
Abdullah Ocalan is serving a life term on a prison
island near Istanbul, Turkey. Osman Ocalan, 49,
himself a former PKK leader, said he left the rebel
group in 2003 has joined "comrades who have a
democratic platform and believe in peaceful
democratic settlement of the Kurdish issue."
"For 20 years I was part of the struggle; but
because of ideological differences, I pulled out of
it. Now I am with armed fighters who defend
themselves, but am against the PKK," he said in an
interview at a restaurant in Koi-Sanjaq. He said his
group included PKK "political" veterans.
A Turkish government official and high-ranking
retired military officer said in early November that
intelligence information indicated the guerrillas
were evacuating their camps and melting away into
cities and other regions.
The PKK and its affiliates are spread through a
region of some 40 million Kurds that straddles
Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria (Big Kurdistan).
PEJAK, the newest group based in Iran, claims to
number thousands of recruits, and targets only Iran
—www.ekurd.net
a mission which has made PEJAK the subject of
intense speculation that it is being used to
undermine Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
He said Kurds from around the world donate about $60
million (€40 million) to the PKK, which also
receives about $5 million (€3 million) annually in
"customs taxes" the rebels impose in areas under
their control in the border region that encompasses
Iraq, Turkey and Iran.
Though he has left the PKK, Osman Ocalan said he
knew about the withdrawal and the PKK's financial
resources through his yearslong experience with the
group. He claimed the PKK has nearly 7,000 fighters:
3,000 in Turkey, 2,000 in Iran under the offshoot
Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or PEJAK, and
1,700 in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Ocalan said some PKK members may have deserted to
join the anti-Iran group, but according to a
statement from PEJAK, the Turkish group's military
headquarters are now occupied by its own fighters.
Kurds are a major ethnic group straddling four
countries — Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria — totaling
about 20 million people. Most live in Turkey,
primarily in the southeast, where the PKK has been
fighting for autonomy since 1984 in a conflict that
has killed nearly 40,000 people.
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using
Turkey's 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', Turkey fears
this could fan separatism among its own large
Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
Turkey rejects direct talks with Iraqi Kurdistan
government, Officially, Turkey does not recognise
the regional government of Kurdistan led by
president Massoud Barzani.
Turkey has never, and still does not, recognize the
Kurdistan region government (KRG) and refuses to
meet with its representatives in any official
capacity.www.ekurd.net That reflects Ankara's fear that any
international respect shown to the autonomous Iraqi
Kurdistan region would only embolden Turkey's own
large Kurdish minority to seek similar home-rule
status.
AP
**
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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