Posted on 07/27/2009 11:55:08 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Bayram Bozyel, the General Chairman of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Hak-Par (Rights and Freedom Party) has disclosed a plan he claims will soon be implemented to dissolve the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan – PKK) and end the longstanding conflict between Turkey’s military and the Iraqi-based Kurdish militants (Haber Turk, July 6; Sabah, July 11). Hak-Par seeks greater Kurdish autonomy within a Turkish federal system.
According to Bozyel, who made the revelations following meetings with leading members of northern Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the four-part plan was drawn up by Turkey, Iraq and the United States and has the full approval of the KRG. The plan calls for the following:
• Northern Iraq’s Mahmur camp near the Turkish border housing some 10,000 Kurdish refugees since the early 1990s will be closed and the refugees returned to Turkey. U.S. officials have sought the closure of the camp for several years.
• PKK cadres based on Qandil Mountain will be moved to the newly vacant Mahmur camp where they will be disarmed.
• Leading members of the PKK will be given Iraqi passports and allowed to move to certain European countries, primarily Norway. Active contacts with the European Union regarding the plan are continuing.
• Turkey will prepare a “solution package” that will include an amnesty for deactivated PKK fighters.
According to Bozyel, the principal political leaders in Kurdish northern Iraq, Iraqi president Jalal al-Talabani and KRG president Massoud Barzani “have also assumed significant roles in this process. They are disturbed by the PKK; they see it as a serious instability factor in the region. They are in favor of speeding up the activities regarding the disarmament of the PKK.” Bozyel even claims “high ranking cadres” of the PKK “are in favor of this plan” (Taraf, July 2; July 4, Argun.org).
Turkish Chief of the General Staff, General Ilker Basbug, was recently asked if the PKK was at the point of being dissolved. He replied, “It would be an overstatement to say that. But, it was delivered very severe blows recently. International support for that organization has diminished. They realized that northern Iraq is no longer a safe haven for them and that they could not achieve anything by using weapons. But, it would be wrong to say that it has been finished off. We can, however, say that we have reached an unprecedented point. We are, therefore, at a critical juncture” (Hurriyet, June 4).
Good sign for the KRG.They will be united.
This is surprising, I didn’t see it coming at all. Without the PKK mucking things up, the Kurds are going to be strong allies of the US. They may get their own nation out of this deal, especially if they help carve out a chunk of northern Iran as part of Kurdistan.
yitbos
I agree.
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