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Turkey says forces will take 'care' during
Kurdish PKK rebels pullback
26.4.2013 |
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Turkey warns opposition
against sabotaging Kurdish peace moves
April 26, 2013
ANKARA,— Turkey said Friday its forces
would show "great care" during a pullback starting
next month by Kurdish PKK rebels heading back to
their bases in Iraqi Kurdistan, in a major step to
end three decades of hostilities.
"Our armed forces, and collective security forces
will do their tasks with great care and attention,"
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on
Turkish television, without elaborating further.
Arinc did not provide any details on the government
strategy during the withdrawal of outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) fighters from the Turkey's
Kurdish
territory but instead called on everyone to "act
with sensitivity" and avoid any action which could
"sabotage" the peace process.
The PKK's retreat from Turkey will be closely
watched because previous withdrawal attempts by the
group has seen clashes between Turkey's security
forces and the PKK.
"The point we have reached in the process is very
important and we need to be sensitive for it to be
completed successfully," Deputy Prime Minister
Bulent Arinc said.
"It is necessary to determinedly avoid behaviour and
actions which would sabotage the process," he said,
criticising opposition parties including the
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) for seeking to
"besmirch" the government.
Nationalists have made no secret of their opposition
to negotiating with the Kurdish militants.
"The Turkish nation will under no conditions
surrender to the PKK or consent to the PKK's
treacherous demands," MHP leader Devlet Bahceli said
in a statement.
Arinc's comments came a day after Kurdish rebels
announced they would on May 8 begin withdrawing from
Turkey into their safe haven in northern Iraq amid a
peace push between Ankara and the PKK.
The pledged
withdrawal,
which is expected to take several months,www.ekurd.net
is aimed to be finalised "as soon as possible,"
according to PKK leader Murat Karayilan.
There are an estimated 2,000 armed PKK militants
inside Turkey and up to 5,000 in Kurdistan region in
Iraq's north.
Karayilan said independent observers could monitor
their retreat but warned that his fighters would
resort to self-defence if it came under attack by
the Turkish army.
Arinc welcomed the PKK announcement.
Turkey has entered a process of a ceasefire with the
PKK after months of clandestine negotiations with
the group's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has
been serving a life sentence for treason on Imrali
island off Istanbul since 1999.
Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state,
which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a Kurdish
state in the south east of the country. By 2012, more than 45,000 people have since been
killed.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous region and more cultural rights
for ethnic Kurds who constitute the greatest minority in Turkey, its goal to
political autonomy. A large
Turkey's Kurdish community, numbering to
22.5 million,
openly sympathise with PKK rebels.
The PKK wants constitutional recognition for the
Kurds, regional self-governance and Kurdish-language
education in schools.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees, lifting the ban on education in
Kurdish, paving the way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within Turkey,
reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action
against the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish constitution.
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.
The PKK is considered as '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.
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