Turkey: Kurdish Guerrillas Declare Cease-Fire

Taken from Yahoo News at Sep 30, 2006
YAHYA BARZANJI, Associated Press Writer S

A Kurdish guerrilla group declared a unilateral cease-fire Saturday in its more than 20-year fight for autonomy in Turkey's southeast, but said it would not immediately give up its weapons.

Murat Karayilan, a commander of the armed-wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, made the announcement Saturday from his hideout in the rugged, isolated Qandil Mountains in Iraq's northeast corner where the group is based.

Karayilan said that starting Sunday his fighters will not use their arms unless attacked by the Turkish army. He also said the cease-fire "would be implemented by all parts within the PKK."

Imprisoned rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan had appealed for a cease-fire several days ago, saying guerrilla attacks targeting civilians and foreign tourists have drawn global criticism.

The Turkish government has ignored previous cease-fires by the group, saying it does not negotiate with terrorists. Military commanders have vowed to fight until all rebels are killed or surrender.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that Turkey would accept nothing less than disarmament. "Cease-fire is the wrong term," he said in an interview with Samanyolu TV. "A terrorist organization has to lay down its arms."

Karayilan said Saturday that "if the Turkish state has a democratic solution for the Kurdish issue, we will give up our weapons."

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union, but the group operates relatively openly in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

The bulk of the PKK's estimated 5,000 guerrillas are thought to be in Turkey, but the group has benefited from the years of a power vacuum in northern Iraq to stage cross-border offensives in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast.

The conflict has claimed the lives of 37,000 people since the guerrillas took up arms in 1984.
The cease-fire announcement comes ahead of talks in Washington on Monday between Erdogan and President Bush over Turkey's fight with the Kurdish separatists.

The U.S. has pledged its support in cracking down on the group but has warned Turkey against pursuing the rebels into northern Iraq, fearing an incursion would alienate Iraqi Kurds, the most pro-American group in the region.

Washington recently appointed a special envoy retired Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander to work with the Turkish government following repeated veiled threats from Turkey to take unilateral military action against the PKK in Iraq.

Earlier this month, the Iraqi government said it would shut down all offices belonging to the PKK around the country, saying it wanted good relations with Turkey and its other neighbors.
A surge of rebel violence has killed more than a dozen soldiers and policemen in recent weeks. Militants believed to be linked to the rebels also have bombed tourist resorts, killing three and wounding more than a dozen tourists.

On Saturday, a Turkish soldier was killed and another was injured when they stepped on a mine believed to have been planted by Kurdish guerrillas in southeastern Turkey, private Dogan news agency reported. The incident occurred in the Hakkari province, bordering Iran and Iraq, it said.

Last year, the guerrillas declared a cease-fire, but the truce lasted little more than a month. The rebels said the government failed to recognize their group and was maintaining its military drive against its members.

The PKK's longest unilateral cease-fire was declared after Ocalan's capture in 1999 and lasted five years.