MOUNT QANDIL, Iraq (AFP) — Turkish Kurd rebel chief Murat Karayilan on Saturday urged Turkey to hold talks with his guerrilla group rather than forming an anti-Kurdish alliance with Iran and Syria.
Karayilan, who heads the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said that Turkey would not be "stable or democratic unless it solves the Kurdish issue."
"We hope that Turkey will stop its aggressive policy and hold democratic talks in solving problems," he told AFP in a interview at his hideout in the remote Qandil mountains of northern Iraq.
Turkey has launched several air and land strikes on PKK positions in northern Iraq since December. Ankara maintains more than 2,000 PKK rebels are based across the border.
The PKK is branded a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. More than 37,000 people have died since 1984 in attacks during its struggle for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey.
Karayilan said Iraqi Kurdish leaders such as President Jalal Talabani and Massud Barzani, who heads northern Iraq's Kurdish administration, could help solve the crisis given their close ties to Washington.
"We wish to solve the Kurdish issue in a peaceful way ... by talks in a democratic atmosphere. Barzani and Talabani can play a role in this issue and offer a programme to solve the issue," he said.
"I think their relations with the US are better now and if they want to play a role, they can do it and can achieve good results. But we are not seeing attempts (by them), and policies against Kurdistan are continuing till now."
Karayilan, whom Ankara says leads the PKK since its 1999 capture of Abdullah Ocalan, accused the Syrian government of lining up with Iran and Turkey against the PKK and its affiliate group, Pjak (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan).
"An alliance of Kurds' enemies" has been formed between Iran, Turkey and Syria, he said.
"The enemies of Kurds are preventing us from forming Kurdistan in Turkey, Syria and Iran," he said, referring to the homeland which the rebels want to carve out from the territories which have sizeable Kurdish communities.
Karayilan said Iran and Turkey were expected to launch new attacks against the rebels.
"We are not against the Islamic Republic of Iran. We didn't announce the war against them. There is an Iranian Kurdish party called Pjak and this party is being targeted by Iran, so it is forced to defend itself," he added.
Pjak operates from rear bases in northeastern Iraq and makes sorties across the border into Iran. It has been involved in a series of deadly clashes with Iranian security forces.
Karayilan also charged that Ankara's new policy was to assassinate PKK leaders.
"Following its defeat against us in February and March, Turkey has started to change its policy and is assassinating and targeting the leadership of the PKK," he said without naming any rebels allegedly murdered by Ankara.
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