Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

32
Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Özeti
13 March 2013
PKK free Turkish hostages to reinforce
peace talks with Erdogan government
Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq free eight hostages on orders of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan
as hopes rise of ceasefire next week
Constanze Letsch in Istanbul and
Ian Traynor
T
he eight Turkish prisoners are seen
as they are released in the northern
Iraqi city of Dohuk
The Turkish prisoners being freed in
the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk. The six
soldiers, a policeman officer and a local
official appeared in good health.
Photograph: Reuters
The fresh initiative to settle the 30year-old
Kurdish insurgency in Turkey
yielded its first dividend on Wednesday
when the PKK fighters of the Kurdistan
Workers' party released eight hostages in a
gesture aimed at reinforcing a fragile peace
process.
Following orders from the PKK leader,
Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned,
mostly in solitary confinement, on a
Turkish island for 14 years, guerrilla commanders
based across the border in northern
Iraq announced the freeing of the
Turkish hostages, some of whom have been
held for more than 18 months.
Anxious, if relieved, family members of
the six soldiers, a police officer and a civil
servant, rushed to Harbur on the Turkish-
Iraqi border to meet their relatives.
"We release eight captives to the delegation
upon the request of our leader. Our
only aim is to contribute to the [peace] process,"
said Baver Dersim, a PKK commander
in the Qandil mountains of Iraqi
Kurdistan, where the PKK, deemed terrorists
by the US and the European Union, is
headquartered.
The release was the first tangible result
of the attempt at a negotiated settlement,
which kicked off gingerly last October with
Turkish intelligence service approaches to
Ocalan, but which in recent weeks has
escalated, generating a wary confidence
that the chances of ending one of the
world's longest-running conflicts are perhaps
better than ever before.
The conflict has claimed more than
40,000 lives since it erupted in 1984, with
the past 18 months especially bloody, leaving
about 900 dead. The prospects for a
settlement and the apparent willingness on
both sides to negotiate are being fed by a
mutual sense of stalemate in the fighting.
Husamettin Zenderlioglu, a Kurdish
politician of the BDP, or Peace and
Democracy party, the political arm of the
PKK, was among the team escorting the
freed hostages from Iraq to Turkey. "The
Turkish prisoners, left, stand after their release in the northern Iraqi city of
Dahuk, after being held for two years in northern Iraq by the Kurdish
Workers’ Party (PKK), Wednesday, March 13, 2013.
personnel have been handed over safely,"
he said."
The release of the hostages and the
expectation that the PKK could declare a
ceasefire next week have been seen as
confirmation of Kurdish good faith in a
delicate process where mistrust remains
strong on both sides.
"It shows that the negotiations are on
the right track, that things are going well so
far," said Vahap Coskun, a university political
scientist in the main Kurdish city of
Diyarbakir in south-east Turkey.
"This is a very important, a very crucial
step of this ongoing peace process. Not
only is the release of the hostages a sign of
goodwill on the part of the PKK, but the
organisation also signals that they want to
continue the peace talks."
It is not clear how the Turkish government
will respond, however, amid signs
that the prime minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, is aggressively trying to keep
control over, and dictate the terms of, the
negotiations.
The momentum picked up a couple of
weeks ago when Kurdish politicians were
allowed to visit Ocalan on his island prison
and returned with a 20-page "roadmap" for
peace that envisages a PKK ceasefire, withdrawal
of fighters into Iraq, disarmament,
as well as a package of civil and human
rights concessions to the Kurds, and
reform of draconian anti-terror laws that
have put 8,000 Kurdish activists in jail,
often merely for voicing their opinions.
The Ocalan roadmap was promptly leaked
to the Milliyet newspaper, triggering a
government-inspired hunt for the culprit.
Erdogan lashed out the press for "sabotaging"
the peace efforts. The large media
conglomerates backing the government
promptly fell into line. A journalist defending
the leaks as press freedom was suspended.
Ocalan stressed in his roadmap that the
Kurds were not seeking a separate independent
state, but that the Turkish government
had to grant Kurds all cultural rights
in order to achieve peace.
"The PKK made a positive step. Now it
is the turn of the government to act. This
sign of goodwill needs an answer," said
Abdullah Demirbas, the BDP mayor of a
Diyarbakir district. "I am very moved by
today's events. It gives me hope that the
on-going negotiations will finally achieve
peace for all of us."
Ocalan is now expected to announce a
ceasefire on 21 March, when Kurds in
Turkey celebrate Newroz, their new year
holiday.
Ongoing Turkish air strikes targeted at
the PKK in northern Iraq, meanwhile, feed
Kurdish leaders' suspicions about the
Erdogan government.
"These military operations have a detrimental
effect on the peace talks," said
Coskun. "Once the PKK declares a ceasefire,
the Turkish government will probably
stop military operations against PKK
camps in northern Iraq. And once the fighting
stops, the peace process will gain
momentum." ●