KurdistanObserver.com
Talabani Denies
Offer To Extradite PKK Freedom Fighters
BAGHDAD, Oct 24, 2007 (AFP) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani denied on Wednesday
Turkish reports that he had offered to extradite leaders of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) based inside Iraqi Kurdistan.
"We have said several times that the leaders of the PKK are not staying in
Kurdish cities of Iraq but they live with 1,000 of their fighters in the
rugged Qandil mountains," said a statement issued by the office of Talabani, who
is himself a Kurd.
"It is impossible to arrest them and deliver them to Turkey."
The Qandil mountains are located along the Iraq-Turkey border, north of the city
of Sulaimani, a stronghold of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.
Earlier Wednesday, a government source in Ankara said Talabani had told Turkish
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan that the possibility of extraditing rebel leaders
existed.
"Talabani told Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan that he did not exclude the
possibility of extraditing members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party," when the
two men met in Baghdad on Tuesday, the source said.
In response, Babacan said it would be a "good first step" if Iraq extradited
some 100 fighters whose names are on a list Ankara handed to Baghdad earlier
this year, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The issue will be taken up during talks in Ankara on Thursday with an Iraqi
delegation consisting mostly of security officials, he added.
"The PKK leaders are in mountainous areas we are unable to reach. As far as
other Kurdish leaders, we will never hand over any Kurdish man come what may.
This is a dream that will never come true," Talabani stressed.
