TURKEY: Turkey's Kurdish separatist group PKK called on its armed wing yesterday to refrain from violence for a month from today.
A PKK statement, handed out to reporters in Brussels, said that "apart from legitimate self-defence against annihilation, it is extremely important that there should be no armed clashes in order for the development of a conflict-free environment" and called on its armed wing, Hezen Parastina Gel (People's Defence Forces), to refrain from violence.
Turkey blames the PKK for more than 30,000 deaths since the group took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.
PKK chairman Zubeyir Aydar had been due to hold a news conference in Brussels to announce the brief halt to violence, but it was cancelled at short notice and a statement handed out instead.
PKK is on a list of proscribed terrorist organisations and banned throughout the European Union. Turkey has consistently refused to negotiate with the PKK, which it too views as a terrorist group.
Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan repeated this line last week on a rare visit to the troubled southeast.
But he also said, in comments welcomed by the Kurdish community and the European Union, that his government wanted more democratic reforms and he has approved more Kurdish-language broadcasts in local media. - (Reuters)