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| Europe |
| Interview - Top PKK official warns against border strike |
| 2007-08-13 |
| (AKI) - From his hideout in northern Iraq, a top official of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has warned Turkey it will come off second best if it launches a cross-border offensive against his group. Abd al-Rahman Jadarji, a member of the PKK's 'diplomatic commission' in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI) also said he hoped Iraq's prime minister would renege a pledge made to Ankara to curb the PKK's presence in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. "We are based in our motherland. Kurdistan is one nation which has been fragmented by its enemies. The current borders are artificial and we don't recognise them," said Jadarji whose group has for more than two decades battled Ankara to win secession for southeastern Turkey's ethnic Kurdish areas. Jadarji was speaking from a PKK base near Mount Qandil in Iraqi Kurdistan from where the group has launched cross-border attacks against Turkish targets. Jadarji's remarks came in the wake of Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's visit to Ankara on Wednesday when for the first time he described the PKK as a 'terrorist' group - a definition long used by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. "The Iraqi government is being put under Turkish pressure, as have several other countries in the region. However, we hope that Prime Minister al-Maliki will join Iraqi president Jalal Talabani (an ethnic Kurd) and the president of the Kurdistan region Massoud Balzani who are against military solutions for political issues. We renew our call to the al-Maliki government not to capitulate to Turkey's unjust position", Jadarji told AKI. "We don't want to harm the interests of our people in Iraqi Kurdistan nor those of Iraq with Turkey, even if we believe that the solution to Kurdish issue in Turkey cannot be found in [Iraqi Kurdistan's capital] Erbil, or in Baghdad, but in Diyarbakr," he said referring to the largest mainly Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey. Jadarji was also commented on the recent parliamentary elections in Turkey which saw prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) score a comfortable victory, and also the election of several Kurdish candidates. In contrast to his secularist predecessors, Erdogan has made some overtures to Turkey's Kurds, acknowledging the existence of a "Kurdish question". It is an opening Jadarji acknowledges, but the PKK official also said the Turkish prime minister had tarnished his reputation by making "racist an extremely nationalist" remarks following last month's elections. Erdogan renewed his threat of military intervention, including cross-border operations, against the PKK , which Ankara accuses of killing some 50 Turkish soldiers in attacks this year. Jadarji welcomed the election of the Kurdish candidates to the Turkish parliament, describing it as a "great national achievement". "They (the Kurdish MPs) are democrats who have entered the Turkish parliament thanks to efforts and the struggle of our party, to whom they have assured their commitment to resolving the Kurdish question". The PKK also supported the role of Kurdish civil society groups in Turkey which Jardarji said were doing much to promote Kurdish rights. "From the beginning the PKK was a political party and we only took up arms when we were forced to do so to defend our people. If a political solution is reached then we will no longer need the arms ", Jadarji concluded. |
| Posted by:Fred |