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| The Grand Turk | |
| PKK threatens to declare independence | |
| 2010-07-21 | |
| The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has threatened the Turkish government to declare independence if Ankara refuses to meet their conditions. In a Wednesday interview with BBC, Murat Karayilan said he would order his rebels to lay down their weapons under United Nations supervision if Turkey agreed to a ceasefire and his demands. "If the Kurdish issue is resolved in a democratic way through dialogue we will lay down our weapons...We will not carry arms," Karayilan said at a camp in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. The offer took a more forceful taint when the militant leader threatened his group would announce independence if Ankara did not agree to his conditions. Karayilan said his conditions included an end to the crackdown on the militants and their sympathizers in eastern Turkey. A Turkish government official declined to comment on the militants' demands, saying Ankara was "not in the habit of commenting on statements made by terrorists." The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara and most of the international community, is blamed for some 45,000 since the start of its armed struggle in 1984 for self-rule in the Kurdish majority southeast Turkey. The PKK has intensified its militant attacks against Turkey since May 31, when they stormed a Turkish naval base in the port city of Iskenderun, killing six Turkish soldiers. The incident curiously coincided with an Israeli attack on a Turkish-flagged aid convoy bound for the besieged Gaza Strip which left nine Turk nationals dead and some 50 others injured. The PKK militants launch their attacks from the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, under the control of Iraqi Kurdistan's President Massoud Barzani, where Israel and its firms are known to operate. Recent reports from the region indicate a greater presence of US military forces in northern Iraq and clandestine meeting between American army and PKK officials -- at times attended by Israelis.
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| Posted by:tipper |