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Kurdish PKK chief says will spread to
Turkish cities if we were attacked by Turkey
18.10.2007
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PKK
rebels chief says we will fight to the death and
spread to Turkish cities if we were attacked by
Turkey
October
18, 2007
Qandil Mountains, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Sipping milky coffee from a glass mug as he sat
crosslegged on a cushion, the Kurdish PKK rebel
commander cut more of a kindly father figure than
that of a fighter preparing to defend his cause to
the death against Turkey.
The friendly smile and calm exterior, however, hide
a steely determination to protect and promote
Kurdish rights in the region, helped by several
thousand men and women who inhabit the remote
mountains of Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.
Murat Karayilan, the leader of the armed wing of the
Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), gave warning that a
major attack by Turkish forces to crush his rebels
would end in defeat because all Kurds in Iraq and
Turkey would unite against them.
He insisted, however, that he still hoped to resolve
the crisis peacefully. The answer was for Ankara to
agree to establish a semi-autonomous state, like
Scotland, for the Kurds in southeast Turkey.
“If the Turkish Army attacks Iraqi Kurdistan we will
struggle and resist against this until the end,” Mr
Karayilan told The Times at a secret meeting point
in the Qandil Mountains that straddle Iraq’s
Kurdistan border with Turkey. |

Murat Karayilan, the leader of the armed wing of the
Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK)

Kurdish PKK fighters,
we will fight to the
death |
“The war will not only happen in Iraqi Kurdistan but
also Turkish Kurdistan and the cities of Turkey.
That is why we hope that the Turkish generals and
politicians will not follow such a crazy idea,” he
said, speaking in Turkish through a translator.
His comments came as the Turkish Parliament voted to
allow its troops to deploy inside Iraq in pursuit of
Kurdish fighters who are blamed for a series of
deadly attacks in Turkey.
Mr Karayilan said that the Turkish authorities were
using the PKK as an excuse to attack all Kurdish
people in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq', where they are
enjoy semi-autonomy and relative stability, as well
as in southern Turkey.
Ankara also wanted to send a message of defiance to
Washington, which has called for restraint in
response to the possible US adoption of a resolution
on Armenian genocide, he said.
“The soldiers will go inside Iraq, but to where?”
asked Mr Karayilan. “To us this means that maybe
Turkey has some military targets in northern Iraq.
However, mostly it has political aims.”
He said he was not worried that Iraq and the Kurdish
regional government would also try to oust his
fighters.
“We are in Kurdistan, amid the Kurdish people, in
the Kurdish mountains. We are living free and we
don’t care what anybody else says.”
Mr Karayilan was speaking from a simple, one-storey
stone house surrounded by fig trees, where The Times
was escorted to meet him by an armed PKK guard after
driving up a narrow, winding mountain road.
The PKK, which has been branded a terrorist
organisation by the European Union, the United
States and Turkey, has reason to keep its
whereabouts secret, particularly as it prepares to
face about 60,000 Turkish troops massing along the
border.
Mr Karayilan said that he had between 7,000 and
8,000 fighters, backed by a support base of
volunteers and sympathisers of about 20,000, and
that morale among them was high.
“I am not afraid,” said one young woman, with a
Kalashnikov slung over her right shoulder. She was
dressed in the PKK uniform of dull, baggy trousers,
a matching shirt, tied at the waist by a scarf, and
an overjacket. Many of the fighters also have
grenades strapped to a belt over their waistband.
Equality between men and women is one of the
principles cherished by the PKK. There must be a
minimum of 40 per cent representation for women in
everything the group does, from its military wing to
its lesser-known, but increasingly active, political
front.
In addition, everyone who volunteers to become a
fighter – no one receives a salary in the PKK, which
was founded on Marxist ideals – pledges to remain
single and childless while they dedicate themselves
full time to the cause. www.ekurd.net
“If there is life, it has to be free. If there is no
freedom then there can be no life,” said Mr
Karayilan, who joined the PKK as a university
student 30 years ago at the age of 20, giving up the
chance to marry and have children. “I gave my
promise to the Kurdish people that I would work for
their rights and their freedom,” he said, sitting
beneath a row of pictures of women fighters who have
died in the group’s armed struggle, which was
launched in 1984.
Turkey blames the PKK for the death of more than
30,000 people over the past 25 years, most recently
Sipping milky coffee from a glass mug as he sat
crosslegged on a cushion, the Kurdish rebel
commander cut more of a kindly father figure than
that of a fighter preparing to defend his cause to
the death against Turkey.
The friendly smile and calm exterior, however, hide
a steely determination to protect and promote
Kurdish rights in the region, helped by several
thousand men and women who inhabit the remote
mountains of Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'.
Murat Karayilan, the leader of the armed wing of the
Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), gave warning that a
major attack by Turkish forces to crush his rebels
would end in defeat because all Kurds in Iraq and
Turkey would unite against them.
He insisted, however, that he still hoped to resolve
the crisis peacefully. The answer was for Ankara to
agree to establish a semi-autonomous state, like
Scotland, for the Kurds in southeast Turkey.
“If the Turkish Army attacks Iraqi Kurdistan we will
struggle and resist against this until the end,” Mr
Karayilan told The Timesat a secret meeting point in
the Qandil Mountains that straddle Iraq’s border
with Turkey.
“The war will not only happen in Iraqi Kurdistan but
also Turkish Kurdistan and the cities of Turkey.
That is why we hope that the Turkish generals and
politicians will not follow such a crazy idea,” he
said, speaking in Turkish through a translator.
His comments came as the Turkish Parliament voted to
allow its troops to deploy inside Iraq in pursuit of
Kurdish fighters
who are blamed for a series of deadly attacks in
Turkey.
Mr Karayilan said that the Turkish authorities were
using the PKK as an excuse to attack all Kurdish
people in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', where
they are enjoy semi-autonomy and relative stability,
as well as in southern Turkey.
Ankara also wanted to send a message of defiance to
Washington, which has called for restraint in
response to the possible US adoption of a resolution
on Armenian genocide, he said.
“The soldiers will go inside Iraq, but to where?”
asked Mr Karayilan. “To us this means that maybe
Turkey has some military targets in Kurdistan
'northern Iraq'. However, mostly it has political
aims.”
He said he was not worried that Iraq and the Kurdish
regional government would also try to oust his
fighters.
“We are in Kurdistan, amid the Kurdish people, in
the Kurdish mountains. We are living free and we
don’t care what anybody else says.”
Mr Karayilan was speaking from a simple, one-storey
stone house surrounded by fig trees, where The Times
was escorted to meet him by an armed PKK guard after
driving up a narrow, winding mountain road.
The PKK, which has been branded a terrorist
organisation by the European Union, the United
States and Turkey, has reason to keep its
whereabouts secret, particularly as it prepares to
face about 60,000 Turkish troops massing along the
border.
Mr Karayilan said that he had between 7,000 and
8,000 fighters, backed by a support base of
volunteers and sympathisers of about 20,000, and
that morale among them was high.
“I am not afraid,” said one young woman, with a
Kalashnikov slung over her right shoulder. She was
dressed in the PKK uniform of dull, baggy trousers,
a matching shirt, tied at the waist by a scarf, and
an overjacket.
Many of the fighters also have grenades strapped to
a belt over their waistband.
Equality between men and women is one of the
principles cherished by the PKK. There must be a
minimum of 40 per cent representation for women in
everything the group does, from its military wing to
its lesser-known, but increasingly active, political
front.
In addition, everyone who volunteers to become a
fighter – no one receives a salary in the PKK, which
was founded on Marxist ideals – pledges to remain
single and childless while they dedicate themselves
full time to the cause.
“If there is life, it has to be free. If there is no
freedom then there can be no life,” said Mr
Karayilan, who joined the PKK as a university
student 30 years ago at the age of 20, giving up the
chance to marry and have children. “I gave my
promise to the Kurdish people that I would work for
their rights and their freedom,” he said, sitting
beneath a row of pictures of women fighters who have
died in the group’s armed struggle, which was
launched in 1984.
Turkey blames the PKK for the death of more than
30,000 people over the past 25 years, most recently
15 soldiers and 12 civilians. Mr Karayilan, however,
said that 13 of the soldiers attacked a PKK camp and
his fighters were defending themselves. He also
accused Turkish troops of killing the civilians and
blaming the rebels to increase its chances of being
granted approval to start a large-scale operation
across the border in Iraq.
At least ten PKK fighters have been killed in
simmering clashes on the Turkish side of the border
this month, the rebel commander said. The PKK, which
was founded in Turkey in 1978 by Abdullah Ocalan,
presented itself initially as part of the Marxist
revolution, campaigning for an independent Kurdish
state – something for which the Kurds have long
strived.
It attracted thousands of disenchanted youths who
were tired of Ankara refusing to grant them equal
rights and allow them to speak Kurdish.
After the arrest of Mr Ocalan in 1999 – the PKK
leader is currently serving a life sentence on an
island prison in Turkey – the group says that it has
shifted its focus to dialogue.
“The Kurdish question with Turkey can be solved in
the same way as Britain did in Scotland or Spain did
in Catalonia,” said Mr Karayilan, advocating the
need for a semi-autono-mous Kurdish state inside
Turkey.
“Turkey will also benefit from a peaceful solution,”
he said. “But their mentality belongs in the 20th
century.” He is confident that, with 30 to 40 per
cent of his forces in the mountains of northern
Iraq, and the rest across the border in Turkey, any
large-scale raid by Turkey would fail as it has done
repeatedly in the past.
He urged the international community to withdraw its
support for Ankara but added: “We are not asking for
help from anyone.” With the interview over the
commander stood up, posed for a few pictures and
then strolled outside, where a group of gunmen were
waiting to drive him off to a secret location in the
mountains for the night.
Before disappearing into the darkness, Mr Karayilan
said that he felt normal, despite the prospect of a
bloody conflict. “I am not scared of Turkey or the
Turkish Army.”
timesonline co.uk
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan ( Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
** Since 1991, the Kurds of Iraq achieved self-rule
in part of the country. Today's teenagers are the
first generation to grow up under Kurdish rule. In
the new Iraqi Constitution, it is referred to as
Kurdistan region. Kurdistan region has all the
trappings of an independent state -- its own
constitution, its own parliament, its own flag, its
own army, its own border, its own border patrol, its
own national anthem, its own education system, its
own International airports, even its own stamp inked
into the passports of visitors.
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using a
Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an excuse to
invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent the
establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish
autonomous region in 'northern Iraq' and The PKK
problem is an "internal Turkish problem,". Ankara is
anxious to prevent the emergence of a Kurdish state
in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', fearing this
could fan separatism among its own large Kurdish
population in southeast Turkey. Turkey is home to
over 25 million ethnic Kurds.
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