Kurdish Rebel Commander Spells Out Conditions For Peace With Turkey

"For armed action to stop the (Turkish army) operations should end... If the operations stop, there will naturally be a ceasefire," Murat Karayilan, a right-hand man of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, told AFP in a guerrilla camp in the Sinena mountains in northern Iraq late Thursday.

Karayilan said Ankara should also guarantee the rights of its Kurdish minority, which comprises about a fifth of the country's 70 million population.

"If the values of the Kurdish people are acknowledged and guaranteed by the constitution, there will be no need for arms. We will immediately give up," he said.

Karayilan argued that recently intensified PKK attacks were acts of "self-defense."

"The PKK says that there is a Kurdish people and that this should be acknowledged. It wants to achieve this through a political and democratic struggle," he said.

"The PKK does not worship the weapon... But if we are confronted with arms, it is our legitimate right to resist with arms," he said.

Karayilan said it was impossible for the PKK to lay down arms under the current circumstances and "without any guarantees."

Besides an end to military operations, the PKK also wants a general amnesty for its militants.

Karayilan rejected PKK responsibility in a series of deadly bomb attacks that claimed at least seven civilian lives over the past month and the Turkish authorities blamed on the group.

The worst of them, which blew up a minibus in the seaside resort of Kusadasi on July 16, killed five people, including one British and one Irish tourist.

Karayilan said the attacks on civilians were carried out by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), which he described as a group of radical militants who split from the PKK and are no longer under its control.

"They are seen as PKK members because they also see Chairman Apo as their leader," Karayilan said, referring to Ocalan's nickname.

"If positive developments take place in Turkey, some control may be ensured over them," he added.

The Turkish police, however, believe that TAK is a cover for the PKK, which does not want to attract international ire for attacks on civilians at a time when terrorism has become a major global concern.

"We do not favor violence," Karayilan said. "We want dialogue, to discuss problems and resolve them by civilized means."

Ankara categorically rejects dialogue with the PKK and has banned several pro-Kurdish political parties for having links with the rebels.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged Friday that the Kurdish conflict would be resolved with "more democracy" in a speech in Diyarbakir, the central city of the southeast.

He signalled, however, that Ankara would not back down from military action against the PKK, denouncing terrorism and violence as "the worst enemy of the country."

Karayilan, who spoke to AFP before Erdogan visited Diyarbakir, said the prime minister's messages would be an important factor in the future course of action of the PKK.