PKK in secret talks with US amid clashes with Turkey: Report

ISTANBUL

DHA photo

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has started indirect talks with the United States, with a senior figure urging Washington to engage in mediation to solve the situation, the Daily Telegraph has reported.

Cemil Bayık, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council co-chair and a senior figure within the organization, said the PKK would accept a cease-fire under U.S. guarantees.

“Of course there are messages, there are meetings, letters and they are likely to develop more,” Bayık said. 

“I repeat my call that the U.S. mediate in this situation between us and Turkey, and if they give us a guarantee, we would accept that role. Unless there are guarantees, we cannot take unilateral steps,” he said.

Bayık said the international perception of the organization had been changed due to its success in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria.

He added that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was responsible for the breakdown of the Kurdish peace process and the current crisis in the region. 

Bayık also urged the U.S. to abstain from backing Turkey’s policies against the Kurds, warning that they would otherwise lose Kurdish support in the ISIL fight.

“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.”

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