ARMENIAN KURDS STAND BY TRUCE IN CONFLICT WITH TURKEY – LEADER

Regnum, Russia
Oct 5 2006

The Union of Organizations of Kurdistan (KKK) [as published: KKK
refers to Democratic Confederation of Kurdistan] takes up a principled
position of proclaiming peace and opposing war, but if necessary it
will not shun an armed struggle for the rights of its people and to
arouse their national hopes. The KKK issued this statement in Yerevan
on 4 October.

The chairman of the Armenian Kurdistan Committee, Charkyaz Mstoyan,
said at a press conference that the Turkish side and certain Turkish
socio-political forces, unlike Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
had reacted in a positive way to the initiative of the leader of the
Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK] on a cease-fire. It will be recalled
that the PKK leader Abdulla Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence in
a prison on Imraly Island, made a statement through his solicitors
in which he urged the members of the PKK to lay down their arms and
try to resolve the conflict with the Turkish authorities by peaceful
means. According to the Turkish prime minister, "such an agreement
with terrorists is impossible they are the ones who should lay down
their arms".

The Armenian Kurdistan Committee said that because of Turkey’s ongoing
policy of rejection of the Kurds, the unilateral truce declared
by the Kurdish side was terminated on 1 June 2004. During the last
two and a half years the Kurdish-Turkish conflict has been manifest
in various forms. Hostilities have increased with heavy human and
material losses. The international community and Turkish and Kurdish
socio-political circles have expressed serious concern and come out
with a proposal for a further truce. The leader of the Kurdish people,
Abdulla Ocalan, called for a truce on 1 October [2006] on condition
that weapons should never be used.

"However, this is on condition that no attack is made on our side,
otherwise we will use all possible methods to defend ourselves. The
People’s Defence Forces (HPG) organization, apart from necessary
preparations, will not undertake any combat operations. The military
council of the HPG will direct all its efforts and its programme to
comply with the truce. This decision applies to all the forces within
the system of the Union of Organizations of Kurdistan. Nothing must
stand in the way of the implementation of the truce process. Everyone
must contribute towards establishing a stable situation," the
statement notes.

Charkyaz Mstoyan also said that the trilateral international commission
(consisting of representatives of the USA, Iraq and Turkey), which was
created on the initiative of international political structures, has
not yet come out with any statement on the Kurdish problem. According
to Mstoyan, it was expected that Iraq would present a Kurdish
representative, "but for some reason a Sunni Arabian representative
was proposed". "The Kurdish leadership said that this was a Kurdish
problem and the talks must take place with the participation of a
Kurdish representative. However, as yet no information regarding
the activity and proposals of the trilateral commission has been
received. Everything is in the process of discussion," Charkyaz
Mstoyan said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress