Kurdish Rebels Surrender as Turkey Reaches Out

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

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• OCTOBER 20, 2009

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By NICHOLAS BIRCH for the BBC's BIODUN IGINLA

ISTANBUL -- In the first concrete sign that months of efforts by Turkey's government to end a 25-year Kurdish insurgency could bear fruit, eight Kurdish rebels crossed over the border from Iraq on Monday to give themselves up.
Accompanied by 26 Kurdish villagers who fled Turkey more than a decade ago, the members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, were detained by police and taken in for questioning by Turkish prosecutors.
View Full Image
Reuters PKK fighters wave farewell before they leave Iraq to surrender to Turkish authorities Monday.
Though not the first time such a gesture has been made, it comes months into what Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoganRecep Tayyip Erdogan has described as his government's "democratic opening" to Turkey's Kurdish population, who make up about a fifth of Turkey's 70 million inhabitants. The PKK has fought a guerrilla war aimed at separating Kurdish areas from the rest of Turkey. Tens of thousands of people, mostly Kurds, have been killed since the fighting began in 1984.
"If they are released, then this is a historic turning point, the start of the PKK's descent from the mountains," Mehmet Metiner, a former adviser to Mr. Erdogan, said of the eight PKK members, in a telephone interview.
The returning Kurdish villagers are likely be questioned and set free, according to Nusirevan Elci, one of 45 lawyers who traveled to the border to represent the group. About 11,000 Kurdish civilians who fled Turkey in the 1990s live in a United Nations refugee camp across the border in Iraq.
It was unclear Monday what would happen to the PKK members. The PKK says that none of the eight took an active part in the war. They are expected to benefit from a law pardoning rebels not involved in violence. However, prosecutors could charge them with membership of a terrorist organization. Several PKK members who surrendered themselves in similar circumstances in 1999 are still in prison. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, as well as by Turkey.
Since May, when Turkish President Abdullah Gül talked of "a historic opportunity" to bring peace to Turkey's impoverished and war-torn Kurdish regions, the country has engaged in an unprecedented, open debate on the Kurdish issue. But the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has yet to reveal details of Mr. Erdogan's opening.
In a three-page letter destined for the Turkish authorities, the PKK members who crossed the border Monday said they were handing themselves over "to assist in ending bloodshed ... and to strengthen the foundations of a peaceful solution."
"We want to show that we are on the side of peace, and we call for all sides to support the peace process," PKK spokesman Roj Welat said in a telephone interview from the group's headquarters in the Iraqi Kurdish mountains.
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Reuters People gather to welcome the fighters in the southeastern Turkish town of Silopi.
Acting on the orders of jailed PKK leader Abdullah OcalanAbdullah Ocalan, who was captured and imprisoned in Turkey in 1999, a second "peace group" is expected to arrive in Turkey from Western Europe on Wednesday.
The PKK spokesman said it was "too early" to say whether Monday's "peace group" would be followed by others.
AKP politicians reacted cautiously to the news of the PKK group's arrival. "This should not be turned into a vehicle for propaganda," AKP Deputy Chairman Huseyin Celik told NTV, as Turkish television showed tens of thousands of Kurds gathered near the border to greet the group, waving flags and dancing. Devlet Bahceli, leader of Turkey's Nationalist Action Party, warned Sunday that Mr. Erdogan's opening to the Kurds amounted in fact to "the dissolution of Turkey."
Despite such opposition and previous false starts, Cevat Ones, a former deputy head of Turkey's domestic intelligence service, said in a telephone interview that Turkey has changed radically over the past decade, increasing the chances for success.
"On one side you have a country which is ready for peace and a government with the will to push it through, on the other a terrorist group which knows that war is no longer an alternative," he said. If the government now announces a road map for change, and the PKK pulls an estimated 2,000 militants into Iraq from Turkey, Mr. Ones added, "the PKK could be persuaded to disarm completely within six months."
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Posted by BiodunIginla at 4:49 AM Labels: kurdish rebels, kurdish workers party, pkk, turkey 0 comments:

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