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15 August 2006

U.S. Calls on Kurdish Group To Stop Terrorist Acts, Lay Down Arms

PKK violence has killed 30,000 since 1984, including 500 in 2006

 

Police officers carry the casket of their colleague Erkan Serdar Sallar, 35, killed during an ambush by rebels of Kurdistan Worker Party, or PKK, in southeastern Turkey on Saturday, during his funeral at the Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara, Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Police officers in Ankara, Turkey carry the casket of their colleague killed during an ambush by PKK rebels in July (©AP/WWP)

By Vince Crawley
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Marking the 22^nd anniversary of violence by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the United States is calling on the separatist group to halt its terrorist attacks against Turkey, which have killed 500 people in 2006.

“Since August 15, 1984, PKK violence has accounted for the deaths of more than 30,000 Turkish security forces and civilians,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement August 14.

The U.S. government is “calling upon the PKK to cease its terrorist acts and lay down its arms,” McCormack said.

Approximately 4,000 to 5,000 people, primarily Turkish Kurds, are believed to belong to the PKK, which formally changed its name to Kongra-Gel in 2003. A majority of PKK members – between 3,000 and 3,500 -- are operating out of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, according to the State Department’s 2005 Country Reports on Terrorism. (See related article.)

Cross-border violence has increased in recent months, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey maintains the right to attack PKK strongholds in northern Iraq. The United States opposes any Turkish military action against PKK bases in Iraq. Instead, the U.S. government is cooperating with Turkey to try to eliminate terrorist safe-havens throughout the region. (See related article.)

“After a lull in violence for several years following the capture of the terrorist Abdullah Ocalan in 1999, PKK terrorism resumed in 2004 and has claimed over 500 victims so far this year,” McCormack said. “This violence undermines prospects for a more democratic and secure future for the people of Turkey and the region, and also significantly sets back the aspirations of Turkey's ethnic Kurdish population that the PKK purports to represent.” (See related article.)

The goal of Kongra-Gel/PKK is to establish an independent Kurdish state in traditional Kurdish lands, which include mountainous regions in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, as well as parts of Iran and Syria. The PKK was founded by Ocalan in 1974 as a Marx-Leninist separatist organization and launched its campaign of violence in 1984. Ocalan was tried in 1999 and is serving a life sentence. That same year, he urged the PKK to adopt a “peace initiative.” In 2002, the group renamed itself the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress. Then, in 2003, the group adopted the name Kongra-Gel (KGK), which stands for the Kurdistan People’s Congress. In 2004, the group renounced its self-imposed cease-fire and resumed attacks against Turkish troops and civilians.

The Country Reports on Terrorism are posted on the State Department’s Web site.

For more information on U.S. policy, see Southeast Europe.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)