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Return of Kurdish PKK ‘peace group’ to
Turkey delayed
25.10.2009
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October
25, 2009
BRUSSELS, — KCK member Zübeyir Aydar has
declared that the trip of the third Turkey's
Kurdistan Workers Party ‘PKK peace group’ to Turkey
has been delayed. Earlier the Turkish premier
Erdogan told reporters that the return of the group
had
been postponed.
Aydar declared in a news program of the Kurdish
TV-station Roj TV that the Turkish premier Erdogan
doesn’t want the ‘peace group’ back in Turkey.
According to Aydar Turkey has closed the doors to
peace with this step, for this reason the date of
the return has been delayed to an unknown date.
The group will come together and will discuss a new
date to come back to Turkey. A planned press
conference of the group will continue on 27 October
in European capital of Brussels. The group was
supposed to arrive in Turkey upcoming Wednesday, but
the Turkish premier thought this wasn't a good idea. |
Zübeyir Aydar, member of the executive council of
PKK known as KCK |
Rebels from the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
surrendered last week after returning from
neighbouring Iraq to support Erdogan's reform
process,www.ekurd.netwhich
includes plans to grant more political and cultural
rights to minority Kurds.
Scenes of
thousands of
Kurds waving PKK flags and chanting slogans in
favour of its leader Abdullah Ocalan in the majority
Kurdish southeastern cities irked the government and
angered nationalist Turks.
"Unwanted things happened despite the warnings given
to the (pro-Kurdish) Democratic Society Party. A
crisis of confidence has emerged and return of (a
Kurdish refugee) group from Germany has been
postponed. Let's have a break and we will assess the
process later," prime minister Erdogan said,www.ekurd.netaccording
to the news agency Reuters.
The KCK (Peoples Confederation of Kurdistan) is the
executive council of PKK, which is listed by the EU,
US and Turkey as a terrorist organization. The
Kurdistan Workers Party claims they are fighting for
the freedom of Kurds within Turkey, whose language
and culture have been repressed.
A group of Kurdish refugees had been expected to
return to Istanbul
from Germany on Oct 28.
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.
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.
Copyright,
respective author or news agency, Rudaw net |
Reuters | Agencies
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