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Turkey expects more Kurdish PKK rebels to
return next month
26.10.2009
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October
26, 2009
ANKARA,
Turkey, — Turkey expects more
Kurdish rebels to return next month as part of the
government's plans to end a 25-year bloody conflict,
but it will not allow them to be greeted with
festive welcomes, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc
said Monday.
The government has been
under fire from
the opposition and nationalists since last week when
a group of the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
rebels,
coming in from
neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan region,www.ekurd.netwere
set free shortly after their symbolic surrender and
greeted by Kurdish demonstrators chanting pro-PKK
slogans.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted at
the weekend as
saying that the
festivities had let to a "crisis of confidence" and
that the return of a second group of rebels,
expected this week, had been
postponed. |
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc |
In
an interview with the NTV news channel, Arinc
explained that the government was taking a break to
assess the situation as it pursued its plans for
expanding Kurdish rights and ending the PKK threat.
"The return of PKK rebels is very important in this
process...The returns will continue but they will
not happen like last week," Arinc said.
The deputy prime minister said he expected more
rebels to come back to Turkey in November, but added
he did not have a firm date.
The PKK, which has rear bases in Iraqi Kurdistan,
since 1984 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.
Earlier this year, the government announced that it
was working on a raft of reforms expected to give
greater freedoms to the country's 20 million Kurds,
but it is yet to announce details.
Arinc said the government was planning to brief
parliament on the process in the first or second
week of November.
The Turkish government categorically rejects
dialogue with the PKK and has called on the rebels
to turn themselves in, vowing to continue military
operations against the group.
The PKK, however, has said it would not abandon its
armed struggle as long as Ankara keeps up military
operations and fails to take concrete steps to give
Kurds political rights.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
AFP | Agencies
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