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KurdistanObserver.com
Kurdish Party Offers New Ceasefire, Peace Talks With Ankara
LIJWA, (Southern Kurdistan), June 1 (AFP)
Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party said Wednesday it was ready to declare a
ceasefire and offered to begin peace talks with Ankara.
"We appeal to the Turkish government, asking it to end military operations in
order to open the path of dialogue, and we are ready, on our side, to decree a
ceasefire," said leading PKK official Murad Karialan.
"We do not demand that the Turkish government holds direct talks. We accept
that the Turkish government talks with parties, political groups and elected
Kurdish figures in Kurdish cities and resolves the problem with them," Karialan
said.
He appealed to the Turkish, Syrian and Iranian governments to "find through
dialogue a solution to the Kurdish problem," while denouncing "Turkish and
Iranian military campaigns" against the PKK.
Karialan said the group had changed strategy and was now seeking a "Kurdish
democratic federation" for Kurdish regions in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria.
Karialan welcomed a recent call by the European Union for Ocalan's retrial.
The European Commission said on May 12 that it expected Ankara to comply with
a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights which condemned the trial as
unfair and called for a retrial. |
