Kurdish rebels call on Ankara for peace plan

QANDIL (Iraq)—A top Kurdish rebel based in northern Iraq called on Ankara to present a peace plan that could end his group’s two-decade armed rebellion against Turkey, in an interview with on Thursday.
“I call upon Turkey to be courageous and present a peace plan to solve the problem. In this way it is possible to have a ceasefire,” said Abdurrahman Cadirci, a senior leader in the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Cadirci, who heads the PKK’s foreign relations office, said Turkey has carried out 24 military incursions into northern Iraq previously but “failed to eliminate us.”
“This time also nobody will stand behind Turkey against us,” he said, adding a “step-by-step process can achieve progress and lead to a solution to our problem. A military solution has never succeeded.” Cadirci also called for the release of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been in prison in Turkey since 1999 and who he said was “living in harsh conditions” in his isolated island jail. Ankara has threatened to carry out a military incursion into northern Iraq to flush out PKK rebels after they attacked a Turkish military patrol two weeks ago and killed 12 soldiers. Another eight soldiers have been captured.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along its border with Iraq, according to media reports, but the United States and its allies have been appealing to Ankara to refrain from action they fear could destabilise the region.
The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984 in a rebellion that has claimed more than 37,000 lives. Elaborating on the peace plan, Cadirci said Turkey must “give the Kurds their national, cultural and political rights and freedom of expression.”
Cadirci urged Ankara to hold back from a military incursion and said any assault was “aimed at destroying the achievements in southern Kurdistan,” referring to northern Iraq’s Kurdish region — one of the calmest places in the violence-ravaged country.
“We urge them (Turkey) not to attack the PKK and to be reasonable. We have not attacked them and in the past we have also declared a ceasfire, but they keep attacking to eliminate us,” Cadirci said. Iraq’s three Kurdish provinces of Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah enjoy relative prosperity and security as compared to other volatile regions of the country.
Cadirci’s comments came a day after Turkey announced a blitz of sanctions targeting the PKK in a move expected to affect members of northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish administration.
Turkish vice prime minister Cemil Cicek said the cabinet had adopted “simultaneous military, political, diplomatic and economic measures” targeting the PKK and its associates — “those who help it and who shield it.”
Ankara accuses the Iraqi Kurdish administration of harbouring the PKK rebels and on Thursday, the NTV news channel said Turkey had closed its air space to planes bound for northern Iraq as part of economic sanctions.
According to press reports, the sanctions could also include restricting trade to Iraq and cutting off electricity supplies to the north of the country.
The Turkish army Wednesday said it killed 15 Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border, as ministers discussed possible economic sanctions against Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish government.
The latest fighting took place in the Cudi mountains in Sirnak province, where Cobra helicopters and artillery have been pounding Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels since Monday, an army statement said.
It confirmed that three soldiers were also killed in the clashes. Turkey has massed thousands of troops along its border with Iraq as it threatens to conduct military strikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq, where it says the rebels obtain weapons for attacks on Turkish soil

.—Agencies