No PKK support to Kurdish state plans in northern Iraq

KANDİL, Northern Iraq – Doğan News Agency

Karayılan said that the withdrawing militants would be deployed to northern Iraq, adding that the PKK expected understanding from the Iraqi authorities. DHA Photo

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) would not support an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq, according to Murat Karayılan, a senior leader of the outlawed group which announced yesterday that it would withdraw from Turkish soil starting from May 8.

The PKK “would not say anything” about the foundation of such a state, but it would also not lend its support as it was against the “nation-state,” Karayılan told a group of journalists on the evening of April 25, after making the withdrawal plans public at a press meeting in the Kandil Mountains, the PKK’s base.

Karayılan said yesterday that the withdrawing militants would be deployed to northern Iraq, adding that the PKK expected understanding from the Iraqi authorities, and particularly from the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The KRG is at odds with the central government in Baghdad, particularly on oil exports issues, with the latter opposing the autonomous Arbil government’s direct trade, largely via Turkey.

“We support [the idea of] all Middle Eastern peoples living together equally in a democratic environment and in fraternity. This is possible with democratic confederalism and federation. Dictators emerge in nation-states,” Karayılan said.

Karayılan asked for support from “all democratic powers in Turkey” for the ongoing resolution process. “Things will get harder if we give everything to the AKP [the ruling Justice and Development Party],” he said, adding that all segments should lend their support to the process.

Karayılan said he did not find Europe’s support for the process sincere.

“The massacre in Paris is obvious,” he said, in reference to the murder of three Kurdish women in the French capital on Jan. 9 at a time when the efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue had escalated.

Sakine Cansız, one of the founding members of the PKK; Fidan Doğan, the Paris representative of the Brussels-based Kurdistan National Congress (KNK); and activist Leyla Söylemez were murdered by a gun attack as the sole suspect was captured.

“There are three entrances to that building. We do not believe that they are carrying out an effective probe. [Europe] may not want the resolution process,” he said.

“By democratizing, Turkey should take the Kurdish card from the European Union to stop them from using Turkey and Kurds.”

Commenting on the recent fights between the supporters of the PKK and Hizbullah, an Islamist organization accused of many killings in southeastern and eastern Turkey as a part of counter-guerilla activities, at Dicle University in the Kurdish-dominated Diyarbakır province, Karayılan said they did not want to take anyone on in this new period.

“We are not against them as a political organization,” he said. Hizbullah founded a political party, Huda Par, at the end of last year.

“We think that the clashes at the university are planned,” Karayılan said. The statements after the clashes, their language reminded us of what happened in the past.”

There was no consensus between the PKK and Hizbullah at the high-level, he added.

Equally, there were no tensions building between the PKK and Hizbullah despite the events at the university earlier this month, daily Vatan quoted PKK’s Duran Kalkan as saying last week.