No tension with the Hizbullah, says PKK member

ISTANBUL

PKK militant Duran Kalkan. Hürriyet Photo

There is no tension building between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Hizbullah despite the events in Turkey’s Dicle University earlier this month where students backing both sides clashed, according to the a high-ranking PKK member.

In an interview published by daily Vatan, PKK’s Duran Kalkan told Ruşen Çakır that despite past tension that had brewed between the organizations, currently there were no troubles.

“There has been some tension, certain meetings,” Duran was quoted as saying. “But there isn’t a current position similar to that.”

PKK has a wide political framework, Duran added.

“If the issue was caused by our young members then that can be taken care of,” Duran said.

Duran said past attempts have taken place to turn the ongoing truce between organizations official, but so far those attempts could not be finalized.

“That was partly caused by Hizbullah. They could have conducted self-criticism, but instead they only criticized us. We are not afraid of looking at ourselves, but we weren’t the ones to blame for the mistakes made during 1990-94 clashes. If there were mistakes made by us, those were individual mistakes,” Duran said.

“It is a dark process that should be brought to light. If it can be solved, we’ll be on the side of the solution,” he added.