PKK LOOKS INTO RELOCATING TO KARABAKH
Ercan Yavuz

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Nov 30 2007

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), faced with increasing pressure to
end its activities in northern Iraq, may be seeking to re-establish its
camps in the Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan,
intelligence reports indicate.

After the PKK lost its support from Syria, which was confronted with
military and diplomatic pressure from Turkey in the late ’90s, the
terrorist group found a safe haven in the mountains of northern Iraq,
a region now facing a serious threat of military incursion by Turkey.

Following Turkey’s intense diplomatic efforts to find support for
its fight against terrorism, northern Iraqi leaders and the US have
recently hinted that they will be backing Turkey’s right to protect
itself from the PKK, whose members cross the border and stage
brutal attacks within Turkey. The leader of the regional Kurdish
administration in northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, who had previously
taken little action against the PKK presence in the region, recently
vowed to make the presence of the PKK in northern Iraq "impossible"
so long as the group did not lay down its arms.

Confronted with an increasingly hostile environment, the PKK has
already begun evacuating its camps in northern Iraq, according to
recent intelligence reports from the region. PKK administrators
are now having talks with Armenia to relocate their camps to the
Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, intelligence
reports suggest. PKK leaders have also been talking to 12 Kurdish
villages in Armenia, located near the border with Turkey.

Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave located in Azerbaijan that has been
under Armenian control since 1993. Since Iraq has stopped allowing
the PKK to get food and supplies in the region and has also stopped
admitting the militants into northern Iraqi hospitals, the PKK has
been trapped inside the mountainous region of northern Iraq.

Faced with this situation, the PKK administrators have decided to
move 10 of their camps from the Kandil Mountains and are in search of
a new country that will welcome them. Currently an estimated 450 PKK
leaders are believed to be hiding in northern Iraq. The intelligence
reports on the PKK’s relocation considerations came from an ex-PKK
member using the code name "Þahin" (hawk), who surrendered to Turkish
security forces after he fled the PKK’s "Carcela" camp in northern
Iraq. He said the group had evacuated most of its camps in northern
Iraq to avoid a potential military strike by Turkey.

Failed to convince Iran

The PKK initially considered moving its camps to Iran, where the camps
of its sister organization, the Party for a Free life in Kurdistan
(PJAK) are located. However, recent Iranian operations against PJAK and
improving relations between Turkey and Iran — including intelligence
sharing — forced the PKK to reconsider.

Meanwhile the government of Azerbaijan has requested detailed
information about PKK militants in its territory, since the terrorist
group has recently increased its activities on in Azeri territory.

Concerned about the fact that most PKK terrorists have Turkish
passports, which confer special access privileges in Azerbaijan,
the Azeri government has offered cooperation with Turkish security
forces. It is also preparing to pass a new law that will prevent even
sympathizers of the PKK, which it considers a terrorist organization,
from forming any associations in the country. A senior official from
the Azeri Justice Ministry was in Ankara on Nov. 28 to talk about
the details of the bill.

Plans for Þuþa, Lacin and Fuzuli

Armenia is making a special effort to settle the PKK in
Nagorno-Karabakh, alleged Mehmet Azeriturk, the secretary-general
of the Federation of Turkish-Azeri Associations, speaking to Today’s
Zaman. "Armenia is making an effort to bring PKK militants into the
cities of Þuþa, Lacin and Fuzuli, to be able to keep these cities it
has occupied." If these three cities fell under the PKK’s control,
a buffer zone would be formed between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh,
Azeriturk warned.

Although Armenian officials deny any contacts with the terrorist PKK
organization, they say it is possible that local administrators in
Nagorno-Karabakh may have had such talks.

Hasan Sultanoðlu Zeynalov, Azerbaijan’s consul-general in Kars, eastern
Turkey, was the first to warn of the talks between Nagorno-Karabakh
administrators and the PKK. He said, "There is a single country
left in the region where the PKK could go, and that is Armenia. Our
research has led us to confirm that some PKK administrators went to
Armenia to have talks there — about which we immediately informed
the Azeri government and the Turkish government."

He said although Kurdish villages in Armenia near the border were
an option, the PKK would prefer Nagorno-Karabakh, a relatively more
remote and safe region.

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