Kurdish rebels threaten new fight in Turkey as Syria clashes intensify

     
Kurdish rebels are ready to re-enter Turkey from northern Iraq, the head of the group's political wing said at his mountain hideout, threatening to rekindle an insurgency unless Ankara resuscitates their peace process soon.           

Accusing Turkey of waging a proxy war against Kurds in Syria by backing Islamist rebels fighting them in the north, Cemil Bayik, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) told Reuters the group had the right to retaliate.           

Syria's civil war has complicated Turkey's efforts to make peace with Kurdish militants, but Ankara strongly denies backing any rebel faction against Kurds in Syria and has held regular talks with the head of a Syrian Kurdish group close to the PKK.             

Bayik, the group's most senior figure at liberty, spoke at a small, heavily guarded house in the Qandil Mountain range in Iraq's Kurdish north, a badge featuring jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan pinned to a pocket on his guerilla uniform.             

Imprisoned on an island south of Istanbul, Ocalan commands unswerving loyalty from a fervent cadre of guerillas - both men and women - who live in the mountains that straddle the borders between Turkey, Iran and Iraq.               

Ocalan began talks with Turkish officials last year to halt a conflict that has left more than 40,000 people dead over the past three decades and earned the PKK a place on a list of terrorist organisations as designated by Turkey, the United States and European Union.              
In March, a ceasefire was called and Ocalan ordered his guerillas to retreat from Turkey to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, but the withdrawal was suspended last month as the rebels said Ankara had not held up its side of the bargain.                   

"The process has come to an end," Bayik said in the interview, which took place on Saturday. "Either they accept deep and meaningful negotiations with the Kurdish movement, or there will be a civil war in Turkey".           

As prerequisites, Turkey must improve the conditions in which Ocalan is being held and deal with him on equal terms, guarantee amendments to the constitution and enlist a third party to oversee any further steps in the process, he said.            

"Now we are preparing ourselves to send the withdrawn groups back to North Kurdistan if the government does not accept our conditions," said Bayik, who shares his position with a female militant. He said the direction of the process would become clear "in the coming days".            

North Kurdistan is the term Kurds use to refer to the area of Turkey they lay claim to as part of a larger homeland that also takes in tracts of Iran, Iraq and Syria, referred to as East, South and West Kurdistan respectively.              


REUTERS