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Kurd fighters may disarm if PKK leader
freed: Osman Ocalan 14.3.2010
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March
14, 2010
KOYSINJAQ, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', —
Kurdish guerrillas fighting Turkish forces no longer
believe they can achieve their aims through violence
and would disarm if their leader were freed from
prison, a former commander says.
Osman Ocalan, the younger brother of the Turkey
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) jailed leader Abdullah
Ocalan aka "Apo", said in an interview the stalemate
in its 25-year-long armed campaign for autonomy in
southeastern Turkey would continue without a
political solution.
Ocalan said he had had no contact with his brother
for three years and split from the PKK in 2004, but
remained in contact with rebels in the mountains on
the Iraq side of the border.
"No side can win this war, it is impossible," he
told Reuters in northern Iraq. "Even if the PKK
takes a blow, there are more people willing to take
those places. The PKK can always replenish itself. |
Osman Ocalan, the younger brother of the Turkey
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) jailed leader Abdullah
Ocalan aka "Apo" |
"If Turkey doesn't force it, the PKK won't fight.
That's why tensions have fallen."
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's efforts to
expand cultural rights for Kurds offer the best
chance for peace in a decade, Ocalan, 60, said.
"If Apo were put under house arrest, and a dialogue
was started with him, then this issue would be
solved in three to five months. Nobody in the PKK
would oppose this," he said.
The PKK leadership, based in the remote mountains on
the Iraq-Iran border, had not believed in a military
solution for least six years, Ocalan said.
In the first violence in months, two Turkish
soldiers were killed last week in explosions in
eastern Turkey. Fighting has declined sharply since
the 1999 capture of Abdullah Ocalan.
EIGHT ARRESTED
The United States and the European Union have
categorised the PKK as terrorists. Belgian
authorities arrested eight people on March 4
suspected of helping to recruit PKK fighters.
Turkish authorities have ruled out releasing
Abdullah Ocalan, whom they blame for the deaths of
more than 40,000 people since the PKK took up arms
in 1984. A large Turkey's Kurdish community
openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
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.
A military court sentenced him to death, but that
was commuted to life imprisonment in 2002 after the
death penalty was abolished.
Osman Ocalan left the PKK six years ago after what
he described as a power struggle with its current
leaders.
The PKK has scaled down its demand for an
independent state to greater cultural rights for
Turkey's estimated 15 million Kurds. Turkey has said
it will never negotiate with the PKK.
Erdogan's government has eased restrictions on
broadcasting and teaching the Kurdish language,
which was banned until 1991. Last year, it pledged
an initiative to expand Kurdish rights in an effort
to end the war.
The PKK had about 3,500 fighters in heavily
fortified encampments in northern Iran and Iraq and
a further 1,500 in Turkey, Ocalan said. Funding came
solely from Kurdish expatriates in Europe and
"customs taxes" on smugglers and amounted to about
$20 million a year, he said.
The Turkish army regularly shells PKK encampments in
northern Iraq, which is administered by Iraqi Kurds
with whom Turkey has improved relations after
launching a ground offensive in 2008 with 10,000
troops to weed out the PKK in the region.
The PKK suffered "no serious losses" during that
campaign, Ocalan said, citing his sources in the
organisation. The Turkish military said 240 rebels
were killed.
Ocalan said he wanted to return to Turkey after a
30-year absence and enter politics. Turkish
newspapers have reported that he has sought to
negotiate his return with authorities.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency,
Reuters | Agencies
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