Militants will start withdrawing from Turkey on May 8, PKK says

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet – 26.4.2013 – Senior PKK leaders in northern Iraq make a much-anticipated statement, announcing that militants will start pulling out from Turkey on May 8.


The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will begin withdrawing from Turkish soil on May 8, according to Murat Karayılan, a senior leader at the group’s base in the Kandil Mountains of northern Iraq. Karayılan, however, told reporters yesterday that any military operation targeting the militants would delay the withdrawal and cause the militants to retaliate.

The PKK also released a number of suggestions to facilitate the withdrawal during the press conference, which was attended by high ranking PKK members Zeki Şengali and executive board member Hacer Zagros.

The PKK militants will use previously traveled routes during the withdrawal in an organized and disciplined while avoiding any clashes, the group said, according to Fırat news agency, which is known to have close ties to the organization.

According to the ongoing preparations, the withdrawal will start on May 8 and will continue in phases. The process will be finalized “as soon as possible” and in secrecy. The withdrawing militants will be deployed to “southern Kurdistan,” which refers to northern Iraq. Karayılan said they expected understanding from the Iraqi authorities, and particularly from the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The Turkish military should show a “similar sensitivity,” while avoiding any “provocative and opportunist attitudes” in northern Iraq, he added.

In the event of any military operations being conducted against the militants, the withdrawal will be halted and the militants will use the “legitimate right of defense” to retaliate, Karayılan said.

The leader did not disclose in his statement whether the militants would pull out with or without arms. Both Turkish President Abdullan Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodğan have insisted on a withdrawal without arms in repeated remarks, while the military is asking for a legal regulation for the process as it is legally obliged to fight against terrorism.

In a statement on April 22, the military said it would keep on fighting against terrorists. A number of other items that were mentioned in a letter to the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, and which are also known by the Turkish authorities, should also be considered, Karayılan said, without giving further details.

The last item in the list was related to observation by independent groups that could help spot problematic issues regarding the withdrawal. The resolution process, meanwhile, will take place in three phases, according to Karayılan, who named the withdrawal as the first stage.

The second stage is the efforts, mainly from the Turkish government and the state, for a permanent solution, he said. “With the reforms within the frame of a constitutional solution, the conditions for democratization in real terms and a solution to the Kurdish problem will emerge,” he said, calling for the abolition of the village guard system, support for the Turkish military and other “special war bodies.”

He also called for the new Constitution, which is currently being drafted under government auspices, to accord a place to the democratic rights, identity, beliefs and religious sects of Kurds. The third stage, which deals with “normalization,” would include freedom for Öcalan, according to Karayılan. “The disarmament of guerrillas will be brought to the agenda following the realization of this process, which will witness the liberation of everyone, including that of leader Öcalan,” Fırat quoted Karayılan as saying.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/militants-will-start-withdrawing-from-turkey-on-may-8-pkk-says.aspx?pageID=238&nID=45632&NewsCatID=338

PKK leader’s letter to Kandil reaches northern Iraq: Report

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

 

This photo captured from Pukmedia shows the BDP’s co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk.

A Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) group arrived in Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq today to deliver a letter from Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is addressed to Kandil, the military headquarters of the PKK, daily Hürriyet reported, quoting the Pukmedia website.
 





Hürriyet said the group arrived in Sulaymaniyah at 4 a.m. and that the letter would be send to Kandil later in the day.

The co-chairs of the Kurdish-umbrella organization, the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk, were also in the group along with BDP’s co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Gültan Kışanak, as well as BDP deputies Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Altan Tan, the report said. 

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) officials welcomed the group, it said. 

Pukmedya published photos of the group in Sulaymaniyah. 

BDP deputy parliamentary group chair Pervin Buldan, Önder and Tan visited Öcalan at İmralı Prison on Feb. 23 as part of the ongoing efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue.

Öcalan had send letters to the BDP, the PKK and the organization’s European branch. 

Road map to be released at Nevruz: Report

Meanwhile, daily Milliyet, claimed today that the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan has said he would declare a “road map for peace” on March 21, expressing confidence in the ongoing talks to solve the Kurdish issue in a peaceful way. 

Milliyet claimed to base its coverage on “official prison records” of talks between him and the Feb. 23 mission. 

“If the process fails, ‘Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] died,’ you will say. I will not be there, I will not let the BDP and the PKK use me,” Öcalan said, according to the report. 

“But everyone should know that we will neither live nor fight as we used to. I have trust in myself. You should know well that neither I nor the state will take a step back. [We will achieve] a historic peace and transition to democratic life,” he reportedly said.

“The PKK’s withdrawal from Turkey will be after a Parliament ruling and the Turkish Grand Assembly will approve it, a truth commission will be established. [Kurdish people who were exiled from their villages] will return to their villages. If these conditions are not met, the [PKK’s] withdrawal will not become real,” Milliyet quoted Öcalan as saying.

‘We will be free’

Öcalan also explained the political environment he expects after the “establishment of peace.”

“Neither house arrest nor amnesty, there will be no need for those. We will all be free. If I can be successful, neither the KCK [outlawed Kurdistan Communities Union – the PKK’s so-called urban wing] arrestees nor the others... A civil war will begin with 50,000 people. But everybody has to acknowledge we will not live as we used to or we will not fight as we used to,” Öcalan said.

Öcalan also made comments about “a team” that convinced Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “to end the PKK.” 

“[That team] said ‘we will end the PKK.’ They arrested tens of thousands of people [inKCK operations]. This power planned a coup against MİT [Turkish intelligence agency]. I intervened and said ‘it is a coup.’
 
The prime minister realized that it was his turn after a coup was staged against MİT. He was going to be arrested for treason,” he said.

Öcalan also reportedly lent his support to the presidential system, saying he would support “Erdoğan being president” on the condition of a system similar to that in the United States.

‘War could occur’

Öcalan began the talks by saying it was a historic meeting and that he had been holding talks since the period of former Turkish President Turgut Özal.

“Turks must acknowledge this. If [the peace process] fails, a middle-to-high-profile war will occur, and chaos and rebels will appear; I have been in contact [with authorities] since Özal and this was interrupted; now it must not be so,” he said.

Öcalan offered three phases and 10 principles in the meeting and told the deputies to “argue on them.”

 “You will argue on it, frankly. You will take it to Kandil [Mountain, where the PKK base is located] and to Europe. If it comes back in two weeks I will revise my views. It would be better for me to meet with [the BDP’s] co-chairs. If [the government’s] attitude toward the chairs continues, again this committee will gather. I want to declare this at Nevruz. I, myself will declare it,” Öcalan said.

March 21, the date of Nevruz, is a spring festival for many people in the Middle East and one of crucial importance to Kurds.

Öcalan also said the U.S. state of Florida was a hub for Turkish counter-guerillas who sabotaged anything related to a solution on the Kurdish issue. 

‘Morsi a British invention’

Öcalan asked the visiting deputies to work to prevent the pollution of Islam. 

“The British used Islam and knocked down the Ottomans. [Egyptian President Mohamed] Morsi is their new invention. They used to produce generals, today they are producing imams,” he reportedly said. 

The PKK leader was quoted as saying that he himself used to practice Islam and that Kurds were living their own Islam secretly. 

Blaming Israeli lobby, Armenians, Greeks

The Armenian lobby is bidding to become effective as of 2015, the 100th anniversary of the events of 1915, Milliyet reported him as saying.

“Kurds are trying to a secure a place for themselves. They were expelled from the state during the last century. Even [Ottoman sultan] Abdülhamid give them room. [Modern Turkish founder] Mustafa Kemal also gave it. The Israeli lobby, the Armenians and Greeks [living in Turkey], which step in, think that they will be successful if the Kurds are alienated,” he reportedly said.

February/28/2013

The PKK bookkeeper and cover-up

Abdullah Bozkurt
The execution-style assassination of Sakine Cansız, a top financier for the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Europe, in a building on busy Rue Lafayette behind the Gare du Nord, one of the main train stations in Paris, has the potential to expose the dirty dealings of the terrorist organization in the middle of Europe.
There are lots of speculations surrounding the deaths of Cansız and two other Kurdish women who were found on Thursday in the Centre d'Information du Kurdistan (Information Center of Kurdistan) in Paris. It may have been related to intra-group fighting or the result of a secret operation conducted by the intelligence service of one of the countries that has a vested interest in seeing the 30-year conflict go on. It can be read as a warning message to the PKK leadership in northern Iraq that if they were to relocate to a third country in Europe as part of a peace deal in the ongoing negotiations between the Turkish government and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, “You won't be safe even if you settle in downtown Paris after you decide to give up your fight against Turkey and lay down your arms.” Iran, which has conducted assassinations in France before, and Syria fit the profile of suspected countries. Though all these explanations have a valid point, my guess is that it has to do with money and the huge financial operations worth hundreds of millions of dollars that Cansız was managing on behalf of the Marxist-Leninist militant organization that turned out to be a major racketeering network instead of a freedom-fighting Kurdish political activist group. This criminal enterprise is benefiting from illegal drug trafficking, human trafficking, extortions, illegal tax levying, contract killings and disruptive sabotage operations. In other words, they are guns for hire. Cansız, who was one of the co-founders of the PKK, raised money for the PKK across Europe, funneled it to other PKK leaders located in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq, and helped to fund arms and munitions for a conflict that has claimed the lives of some 40,000 people over three decades, most of them Kurds. It is amazing that she conducted all these financial transactions under the close scrutiny of European security agencies, mainly French, British and German intelligence monitoring units, which simply turned a blind eye to her travels and business dealings for years. Even when American officials, acting under the US presidential directive to crack down on PKK operations in Europe, pressured the French and the Germans to extradite her to Turkey, the governments of France and Germany balked at the idea. Under the pretense of legal arguments, both France and Germany denied Turkey's demands. She was protected and sheltered first in Germany and later in France to the irritation of Turkey. For example, when Cansız was arrested in Germany in 2007 pursuant to an Interpol extradition request issued by Turkey, she was let go after a brief detention by German authorities citing insufficient evidence forwarded by the Turkish government. She was allowed to return to France, where she continued to run the financial operations for the bloody terrorist organization. It is no wonder she picked Paris as a base for PKK operations because no single extradition request from Turkey has been approved by the French authorities in the past two decades. Cansız, along with her comrades, was free to run fundraising activities from cultural and social events to narcotics, smuggling and extortion. Ever since PKK leader Öcalan entered into negotiations with the Turkish government with pretty much no preconditions following a year-and-a-half of mop up operations by Turkish security forces that significantly diminished the ability of the terrorist organization to successfully mount attacks against Turkish interests, it seems that there has been a panic spreading among the backers of the PKK. The supporters of the terrorist organization wanted to clean up their acts by muzzling the people whom they have dealt with for years. Cansız, as the leading bookkeeper for the PKK in Europe, was the prime target because she was intimately familiar with its money flows and arms transactions. Having lived in Europe since 1992, she cultivated a network with leading figures in France and other European countries. Therefore, she simply knew too much and was a security risk for many. The possibility of an embarrassing exposure of her knowledge during Öcalan's talks with the Turkish government might have prompted some to send a cleaning crew to the Paris building to take her out. It is interesting to note that French President François Hollande said he and several politicians knew one of the women professionally. He did not say which one. But the fact that Hollande himself admitted that he had been involved with a group known to have a clear affiliation with the PKK gave rise to further speculations that the French establishment is deeply engaged with the organization listed as a terrorist group by the US, the EU and Turkey. If we are to lend credence to these allegations, how do we make sense of the ongoing judicial cases initiated against the PKK in France? The same question is also valid on the supposed cooperation between the French and Turkish interior ministries on the PKK issue. As Turkish Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin announced recently, there has not been a single extradition of a PKK terrorist from France to Turkey in the last 20 years. Hence Turkish doubts on the sincerity of the French government still linger. It may very well be the case that the French are trying to project a positive image of cooperation with Turkey in order to relieve some of the tension built up between Paris and Ankara. But in reality, the French position with regard to the PKK has not changed fundamentally. Let's assume Cansız could have been a key suspect or even a witness in these cases which the French have started. Now that she, along with her secrets, is gone, we will never know how the French investigations will eventually turn out. Whoever ordered her killing was probably targeting the derailment of the ongoing judicial cases against the PKK in France as well. We know that Cansız was part of a list of senior PKK leaders that the Turkish government wanted and has in fact distributed to different countries, including France. Ankara had also submitted her name to the Iraqi government in the past to prevent her from using airports in Baghdad and Arbil to reach PKK commanders from the European capitals. Neither the European governments nor the Iraqi government paid any attention to the Turkish demands, deciding to look the other way when Cansız and her companions traveled between Europe and northern Iraq. We will probably never know exactly the motivations that played into the assassination of this woman, rendering all explanations mere speculation. But suffice it to say, whoever gave the order for the killing of Cansız, an accountant and arms dealer, wanted to cover up her tracks in order to prevent embarrassing revelations in the future. The counterstrategy for this dirty game is to stick strongly with the negotiations with those who represent peace while continuing to fight the hard-core militants who have no interest in laying down their arms. This should be complemented with strong signals from Ankara to the backers of the PKK conflict that their support for terrorism will eventually boomerang as well.

http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-303774-the-pkk-bookkeeper-and-cover-up.html

A new Baas state is a threat to the region, Dr Hicran Kazanci

A new Baas state is a threat to the region

 Dr. Hicran Kazancı

 Iraqi Turkmen Front Turkey Representative

Yeni şafak gazetesi

AYNUR EKİZ / ANKARA

Iraqi Turkmen Front Turkey Representative Assistant Professor Doctor Hicran Kazancı interpreted the possible problems which may emerge after the Bessar Esad regime is overthrown in Syria for Yeni Şafak.

Dr.Kazancı assessed the probable future of Syria based on the experiences following the demise of the dictator in Iraq saying, "the important thing is what follows the demise of a regime ". Dr. Kazancı indicated that over 50% of the Syrian people viewed the regime as hostile and qualified the Nusayri Esed regime as "a power which does not recognize the right to life those of another ethnic sect than themselves”.

Dr.Kazancı indicated that the ‘new Baas state’ to be purportedly established in the western part of Syria between Lazkiye and Tartus after the Beşşar Esed regime is ousted will be problematic for the international community and said: "this state is in possession of chemical weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The armed forces have linked their fate with that of the regime. Tomorrow if the regime falls the armed forces shall be held responsible for all the incidents. As their fates are intertwined when such a state is established it becomes a threat to the whole region. That is why the international community will not allow this to happen."

THE WEST IS APPREHENSIVE ON ACCOUNT OF ISRAEL

Dr.Kazancı said that although the Syrian insurgents had light weapons and Esed’s armed forces was destitute, he pointed out that if the Free Syrian Army had heavy weapons the resolution process would gain momentum. Dr.Kazancı said that the West was concerned that any dispatched weapons could fall into the hands of extremist groups which could be a threat to Israel after the regime is ousted.

There are 3 million Turkmen

Although there are no definite figures, Dr.Kazancı indicates that there are around 3 million Turkmen in Syria who are distributed almost all over the country. Dr.Kazancı said that Syria had replaced the Turkmen in areas close to the border with Turkey with citizens of Kurdish origin saying the Esed regime turned a blind eye on the PKK terror organization. Dr.Kazancı said that it appeared to be a major dilemma that while the Syrian elements involved in the PKK terror organization would not give even identity cards to citizens of Kurdish origin in their own country they claimed that they were defending the rights of Kurdish citizens in Turkey.

TURKMEN IN THE OPPOSITION

Dr. Kazancı stated that it was a positive fact that the Turkmen in Syria were among the opposition and said, "If you are not with the opposition then you will not be included in the power structure of the future. We experienced the same thing in Iraq".

Together for a millenium

Iraqi Turkmen Front Turkey Representative Hicran Kazancı said that the good relations between Turkey and the Northern Iraq Regional Administration in the recent past had a positive effect for the Turkmen. Dr.Kazancı mentioned that the Ottomans had been a uniting factor in the region and said, "in any case we have lived together for a thousand years ". Dr.Kazancı was supportive of the efforts of Turkey to open a consulate general in Arbil saying, "it will be to our benefit. There are close to 300 Turkish companies in Northern Iraq.

Northern Iraq survives with the investments made by Turkey”.

Dr.Kazancı noted that Turkey was administering a very wise policy in the region adding, "If Esed had listened to the advice of Prime Minister Erdoğan regarding 'elections' everything would have been very different".

Talabani in discussion with PKK for cease-fire

Hürriyet:
BAGHDAD / ARBIL



Iraqi President Talabani holds negotiations with the outlawed PKK to urge the organization to declare a cease-fire, according to the president’s party spokesman. ‘The results of this effort will soon emerge,’ he says


Iraq’s Kurdish-origin president has been holding negotiations with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to urge them to declare a cease-fire, an official from the leader’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said yesterday.



“[Jalal] Talabani is holding talks with PKK to convince them to declare a cease-fire,” Azad Jindyani, a PUK spokesman, was quoted as saying on the party’s website. “His initiative will continue until the clashes between Turkish army and the PKK have ceased. The results of this effort will soon [emerge],” he said. “The president believes peaceful means will bring the two sides closer,” he was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency.



The spokesman said he thought clashes between Turkey and the PKK would have a negative influence on northern Iraq and Iraq as a whole if they were not dealt with soon. His comments followed statements by Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay on June 8 in which he said, “There are ongoing talks which even include the laying down and handing over of arms by the PKK.” Atalay also said terror was an international problem, adding that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq was at a “crossroads” and must “do something” against the PKK based on its territory.



Efforts ‘just started’



Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s opponents insisted their efforts had “just started” after they failed to collect enough votes to oust the premier. “Those who met today insisted that they will continue their efforts and the steps to achieve their goal,” a statement issued on the website of KRG president Masoud Barzani said of the gathering. The parties “will continue to call on parliamentary powers by legitimate means to face one-man rule ... and to condemn pressures exerted on members of Parliament.”



“It just started,” Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said when asked by a follower if the issue of withdrawing confidence from al-Maliki was over.



Haidar al-Mullah, a leading Iraqiya MP, told Agence France-Presse that “we are working to end the dictatorship” and that the required votes could be secured “in half an hour” if needed. There “were clear Iranian pressures” on the president and some MPs, Mullah added.

June/12/2012

A NEW CEASEFIRE ? : Talabani mediates between Turkey and PKK

Jalal Talabani Iraqi president attempts to start a new ceasefire between Turkey and PKK. - PKK has stepped up the attacks inside Turkey as the country has launched its military operations in Qandil Mountains where the group’s hideouts and strongholds exist.

Jalal Talabani Iraqi president and Secretary General of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has expressed his concerns of the ongoing conflicts and that he intends to maximize his efforts to conciliate between the two sides involved in a deadly war, source inside PUK leaked to the press on Saturday.

He is attempting to persuade the two sides to hold “a new ceasefire”, the source added.

CCTV VIDEO: Turkey, Iraq To Discuss PKK Issues

Turkey's Bombing of PKK Camps Exposes Rift Among Kurds

By Guy Taylor | 12 Sep 2011

The slow-burning war pitting militarized Kurdish groups in Iraq against the governments of Turkey and Iran has escalated since mid-August. Most notably, Turkish fighter jets have flown multiple bombing runs on bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The Turkish bombing campaign, occurring inside northern Iraq, is reportedly being conducted in retaliation for a series of PKK attacks that have left more than two dozen Turkish soldiers dead since the beginning of the summer. Meanwhile, a PKK offshoot known as the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) is engaged in ongoing clashes with Iranian forces, with Iranian officials claiming last week that 30 PJAK members had been killed in fighting near the Iraqi border.

The multifaceted conflict reached new heights of complexity last week when Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government, called on both the PKK and PJAK to stop using northern Iraq as a base for plotting attacks on Turkish and Iranian targets.

Barzani has in the past defended the Kurdish guerrillas operating in the Qandil Mountains. Why he now appeared to come out on the side of the Turks and Iranians is the subject of some debate. World Politics Review contributor and Kurdistan analyst Hannes Artens says it is vital "not to look at the Kurds as one unit across all these countries."

Artens, who is currently a doctoral researcher specializing in Iraqi Kurdistan at the University of Exeter in the U.K., told Trend Lines that "there's no such thing as pan-Kurdish solidarity between the Iraqi Kurds and the PKK."

"They each run their own show," he explained. "The main interest of the Iraqi Kurdish parties is to keep what they have got -- they have autonomy status in Iraq, and it depends essentially and vitally on the good will of the U.S. and Turkey."

"Any consideration of pan-Kurdish solidarity, or co-ethnic alliance is secondary," added Artens, who noted that 90 percent of all imports in Iraqi Kurdistan are presently coming from Turkey. "What do the Iraqi Kurds and Massoud Barzani do in order to keep this relationship going and to assure Turkey's good will? They walk a tightrope, using the PKK as leverage. Basically, they allow Turkey every couple of years to strike at the PKK, but at the same time, they have an interest in the PKK not being completely annihilated, because as long as the PKK sits in the mountains, they can use it as a bargaining chip with Turkey."

The same logic runs in the other direction, with Turkey using the PKK presence in northern Iraq to exert leverage over Iraqi Kurds, said Artens, who contends that the United States largely accepts Turkish military action against the PKK because Turkey is an alley in the wider U.S. war on terror. It's worth noting recent reports that Turkey has invited the United States to base a fleet of Predator drones on Turkish soil for cross-border strikes on the PKK, elements of which appear on the U.S. State Deparment's list of foreign terrorist organizations.

While such factors help to explain Barzani's remarks last week, other evidence suggests that Iraqi Kurds are far from compliant to Turkey and Iran when it comes to cracking down on the PKK.

According to Edmund Ghareeb, a Kurdistan expert and professor at American University's School of International Service in Washington, Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, along with its coalition of other Kurdish parties, including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Islamic Group in Kurdistan, "took the issue to the Iraqi parliament and asked the Iraqi government to call on Turkey and Iran to stop interfering and end their attacks on Iraqi territory."

"They also called on the United Nations to take more responsibility to pressure Turkey and Iran to apologize to the Iraqi Kurdish people and to pay reparations," said Ghareeb. "Both the recent Iranian and Turkish attacks inside Iraq led to some civilian casualties of Iraqi Kurds, and this angered the Kurdish population of Iraq."

Hannes Artens comments regularly on Kurdistan. His WPR Briefings can be found here.
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/9974/turkeys-bombing-of-pkk-camps-exposes-rift-among-kurds