Iraq warns Kurd rebels during Gul visit

BAGHDAD: Iraq on Monday warned Turkish Kurdish rebels based in its northern mountains to lay down their guns or leave the country, during a landmark visit by Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul. “The PKK has two choices: lay down its guns or leave Iraq,” President Jalal Talabani — himself a Kurd — said of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party at a joint news conference marking the first visit by a Turkish head of state in 33 years. “The PKK must become involved in political and parliamentary life instead of resorting to weapons, since using guns does wrong to Kurds and Iraqis,” Talabani said. “Iraq’s constitution forbids the existence of armed groups, the PKK along with others, and we are currently working towards this aim on the tripartite committee” comprising Iraq, Turkey and the United States, he said. In Istanbul last week he urged Turkey to consider an amnesty for the rebels to consolidate measures broadening Kurdish cultural freedoms and boost the prospect of a lasting peace.President Abdullah Gul arrived in Iraq on Monday on the first visit by a Turkish head of state in three decades for talks set to focus on the thorny issue of Kurdish rebels. ’Gul will discuss with President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki the PKK issue, water and economic relations,’ Al-Iraqiya state television said.He is the first Turkish head of state to visit in 33 years, after Fahri Koruturk made the trip in 1976 when Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr was president of Iraq. Talabani, himself a Kurd, made his first visit to Turkey as head of state a year ago, when he and Gul pledged to cooperate in attempts to oust rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who have set up bases in northern Iraq.Ankara wants close ties and economic cooperation with Baghdad but the safe haven the PKK enjoys in the autonomous Kurdish-run north of Iraq has long been a bone of contention between the two countries.Turkey has often accused the Iraqi Kurds, who run an autonomous administration in northern Iraq, of tolerating and even aiding the rebels. But hopes of better cooperation improved after Iraq, Turkey and the United States agreed in November to form a joint committee to work on the problem.And during a visit to Ankara in December, Maliki pledged to increase cooperation to root out the rebels. While in Istanbul last week Talabani called on Turkey to consider an amnesty for the rebels to consolidate measures broadening Kurdish cultural freedoms and boost the prospect of lasting peace.He also said that the Kurdish rebels are expected to heed an appeal expected next month by Kurdish political groups from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Europe to lay down their arms. ’I believe the PKK will accept the wish of all Kurdish parties, laying down its arms and putting an end to violent action,’ Talabani told Turkey’s Sabah newspaper last week.The PKK’s expected move would not mean only a ceasefire but ‘a decision in principle to end the so-called armed revolution,’ he said. The Kurdish groups are due to gather in late April or May, probably in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil.The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by much of the international community, took up arms for self-rule in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.Turkey says thousands of PKK militants use the mountains of northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks on Turkish territory. The Turkish army has been targeting rebel bases in Iraq under a parliamentary authorisation for cross-border military action, which was first approved in 2007 and renewed for another year in October.The talks are also likely to discuss the controversial issue of oil-rich Kirkuk, an ethnically divided city 255-km north of Baghdad where tensions between Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen residents run deep.Turkmen, an ethnic group comprising about 600,000 people are concentrated around Kirkuk. Kurds have demanded that it be added to their autonomous region in Iraq’s north, however Turkey is against this. Ali Hashim Oglo, spokesman for the Iraqi Turkmen Front, described Gul’s visit as ‘a historic day which will discuss economic cooperation, water, and issues regarding the PKK and Kirkuk.’