PKK urges US to mediate in its war with Turkey and admits to secret talks with Washington
PKK urges US to mediate in its war with Turkey and admits to secret talks with Washington –
Cemil Bayik, one of the three-man interim leadership council of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), tells the Telegraph it would accept a ceasefire with Turkey under US guarantees
“If America continues to back Turkey’s policies it is possible it will lose the Kurds,” he said. “If America loses the Kurds, it will be difficult to defeat Isil.”
The Telegraph – The leaders of the PKK Kurdish guerrilla organisation has said they have been in indirect talks with the United States, despite being listed by Washington as terrorists, asking it to intervene and mediate in its war withTurkey.
In an interview with Telegraph, Cemil Bayik, one of the three-man interim leadership council of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), would not identify the intermediaries in the negotiations – used because of its international proscription as a terrorist group.
He also said the group was rejecting any idea of a unilateral ceasefire in the recent fight with Ankara, in which it has killed more than 20 policemen and soldiers while coming under heavy air attack from Turkish fighter bombers.
However, Mr Bayik – one of the founding members of the group – said it would accept a ceasefire under US guarantees.
“Of course there are messages, there are meetings, letters and they are likely to develop more,” he said. “I repeat my call that the US mediate in this situation between us and Turkey, and if they give us a guarantee we accept that role.
“Unless there are guarantees we cannot make unilateral steps.”
The resurgence of fighting between Turkey and the PKK, which has fought a guerrilla war for autonomy for more than 30 years with Ankara, has made the job of the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) much harder.
But it has also brought into the open the possible role of America in helping end the conflict.
Turkey is a fellow Nato member, which in part explains why both the US and European States agreed to designate the PKK as terrorist. But the PKK is also fighting Isil alongside coalition forces in both Iraq, in whose Qandil mountains it has its headquarters, and in Syria via its local branch there, the YPG.
On both fronts it has proved to be the most resilient of all America’s ground force allies, and in Syria its fighters have been calling in US air strikes, most notably in the defence of the town of Kobane.
In his interview, conducted on a remote mountainside to which The Telegraph was driven separately from the PKK leader, Mr Bayik said America was now in a good position to intervene to prevent the violence.
He said the group’s success against Isil had begun to change international opinion towards it – from being seen as a Marxist terrorist group to the best hope in fighting Isil for democracy, freedom and women’s rights in the Middle East.
The PKK was founded on Marxist lines but claims now to support a pluralist democracy. It has won worldwide attention for its brigades of women’s fighters and insistence on equal rights for women.
Ankara launched raids against PKK positions in both Turkey and Iraqimmediately after agreeing that America could use its airbases against Isil – something the Pentagon had long sought. It also began its own air operations against Isil, and declared it would create a non-Isil “safe zone” in northern Syria.
However, it has conducted far more raids against the PKK than against Isil, while the “safe zone”, which would be policed by Turkish-backed Islamist rebel groups, would also keep separate the two Kurdish enclaves of northern Syria controlled by the YPG, the local PKK affiliate.
Turkey insists its air raids are a response to the resumption of PKK killings of policemen and soldiers, and the US says Ankara has “the right to defend itself against terrorism”, although reports from Washington say officials were shocked at the speed and extent of Turkey’s response.
Mr Bayik accused Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of deliberately engineering the breakdown of the two-year ceasefire for electoral reasons.
Mr Erdogan’s AKP (Justice and Development Party) lost its overall majority in parliamentary elections in June, thwarting his hopes of changing the constitution to give his office supreme power in Turkey. The most significantobstacle was the success of the pro-Kurdish HDP, which won 13 per cent of the vote and entered parliament for the first time.
Mr Bayik said Mr Erdogan had employed proxies to deliberately provoke the PKK into a response. “Erdogan is deepening the present crisis in Turkey and at the same time deepening the crisis in the Middle East,” he said.
He also laid down the PKK’s conditions for new negotiations with Turkey for a permanent peace. He said that as well as stopping the bombing campaign, Turkey should agree access to Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK’s cult-like overall leader, known as “Apo”, whose portrait lines the region’s mountainsides and who has been in a Turkish prison since being jailed in 1999.
Previously he was allowed to meet his brother and Kurdish politicians, and it was his call for a ceasefire that was heeded two years ago. However, no one has been allowed to meet him since April.
Turkey should also stop “police operations” – meaning the hundreds of arrests of Kurdish activists in recent weeks – and allow an independent monitor for negotiations and the implementation of the ceasefire, Mr Bayik said.
He said the American role in the Northern Ireland peace process showed how this could work – but it was down to America to intervene and call Turkey to order.
“If America continues to back Turkey’s policies it is possible it will lose the Kurds,” he said. “If America loses the Kurds, it will be difficult to defeat Isil.”