October
19, 2009
SULAIMANIYAH,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — As a group of Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK) is expected to cross the
Turkish border in a bid to support Turkey’s Kurdish
initiative, another group of Iraqi Kurdish
intellectuals are also alleged to come onto the
Turkish border to support the PKK’s surrender as a
step to a lasting peace.
Reuters reported from PKK’s foreign affairs
department that “eight fighters from a PKK camp in
the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq will
cross the border to Turkey
on the wishes of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah
Ocalan.”
The intellectuals and journalists are largely based
in Sulaimaniyah, considered as the cultural center
of Kurdistan.
Aso Abdul-Latif,www.ekurd.netrepresentative
of the group, told Awene website “we will support
this attempt taken by the PKK. We prefer a
thousand-hour long dialogue to a minute-long war.”
26 refugees
from the UN Mahmur Camp and 8 PKK
members from Qandil maonutain will come to Turkey to
talk to DTP delegations today (19 October) bianet
website reported .
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms
for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of
Turkey (Turkey-Kurdistan) which has claimed around
45,000 lives of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas. A large Turkey's Kurdish
community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK
rebels. Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish
population as a distinct minority.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded an end to ethnic
discrimination in Turkish laws and constitution
against Kurds, ranting them full political freedoms.
The PKK is considered a 'terrorist' organization by
Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians
say the measures fall short of their expectations.
Ankara is currently working on a package of fresh
reforms to expand the freedoms of the Kurdish
community, but has rejected calls to halt military
action against the PKK.
Copyright,
respective author or news agency, hrtribune net
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