INTERVIEW-Turkey crackdown could renew fight, Kurd rebels say

Sun Mar 21, 2010 9:19am EDT

* Closure of party, arrests make peace more difficult

* PKK could resume hostilities if political route fails

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By Ayla Jean Yackley

AKOYAN, Iraq, March 21 (Reuters) - Kurdish militants could end a truce and renew fighting against Turkish forces because a ban of Turkey's main Kurdish party has made a political settlement more remote, the rebels' commander said.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) expects the Turkish army to begin operations in the Spring thaw in the mountains of north Iraq, where the group is based, Murat Karayilan, deputy to jailed PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan, said in an interview.

"If the Turkish state continues its military operations and the pressure against political actors, no lasting peace can be had," Karayilan told Reuters. "We will not take retreat from these attacks so this Spring could be complicated and volatile."

More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed since the PKK took up arms against Turkey in 1984. It says it is seeking more autonomy for Turkey's estimated 15 million Kurds.

Fighting has dropped off significantly since Turkish agents snatched Ocalan from Kenya in 1999, but relentless Turkish army operations against the PKK inside Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast and periodic military raids into northern Iraq have failed to extinguish the insurgency.

The PKK, branded terrorists by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, declared a "period of non-action" in April 2009, halting fighting except in self-defence.

That was to encourage a political solution to the conflict, said Karayilan, 53, who commands the rebels in Ocalan's absence.



FIGHTING OR DIALOGUE?

The PKK's gesture coincided with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's pledge to expand Kurdish cultural rights to try to end the conflict and help Turkey's chances of admission to the EU.

But the government initiative suffered a blow in December, when the Constitutional Court outlawed the Democratic Society Party (DTP) on charges of being the political wing of the PKK.

"The base for a political solution is being destroyed, Kurds are being forced into war," said Karayilan flanked by young guards in baggy green fatigues, armed with AK-47 assault rifles in a remote village in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

"If steps aren't taken, this will revert to war. There's a month or a month-and-a-half left," he said, when asked if there was a date for any resumption of hostilities.

The PKK will not disarm without a negotiated settlement, but Turkey has ruled out talks with the rebels. The rebels do not insist on direct talks but the arrest of dozens of Kurdish politicians makes finding a mediator difficult, Karayilan said.

The PKK has dropped its campaign for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey and says it is fighting for greater cultural rights, including local self-governance for Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of Turkey's population of 72 million.

"We don't say violence no longer has a place," Karayilan said. "But we believe that violence will only go so far, that in the end societal problems need to be solved through dialogue."

A Turkish soldier was killed on March 14 in fighting near the Iraqi border, the first clash in months. Karayilan said 94 PKK fighters were killed in the last year.

Karayilan said the PKK has 7,000 fighters, with more than half based in the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region.

Rebels say regular shelling of PKK sites by Turkey has little impact on fighters shielded in the Qandil mountains' wooded valleys or in hilltop fortifications, but experts say the operations have dented the militants' supply lines.

Qandil's snow-covered peaks can reach heights of 3,500 metres (11,500 feet).

PKK gunmen man the area's checkpoints, running a swathe of the border region beyond the control of U.S.-allied Iraqi Kurds.

The U.S. Treasury in October named Karayilan and two other PKK members "kingpins" in drug trafficking. Karayilan denied the charge and said he was willing to open camps to investigators.

Funding comes mainly from expatriate Kurds in Europe and from "customs duties" the PKK charges smugglers trading in fuel and household items between Turkey and Iran, he said.

"I don't want to see we face financial hardship, but we live very humbly. It is an ascetic existence," Karayilan said. "We rely only on our people and on our mountains." (Editing by Jon Hemming)



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