Kurdish rebels end ceasefire with Turkey

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02635586.htm

TUNCELI, Turkey, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Kurdish rebels have announced the end of their five-year ceasefire with Turkey because of Ankara's failure to match the truce, a news agency close to the guerrillas said on Tuesday.

The PKK rebels, also known as KADEK, launched their fight for an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey in 1984. More than 30,000 people have died in the conflict, though violence largely subsided after the 1999 capture of rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

"It is announced that the unilateral ceasefire has come to an end as of September 1 and that the ceasefire can only continue bilaterally," KADEK was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Europe-based Mezopotamya News Agency.

Any resurgence of the rebellion in the southeast could have implications for relations with neighbouring Iraq and the Kurds who live there as well as for Turkey's bid to join the European Union. EU members criticised Turkish military operations in the 1980s and 1990s, raising accusations of torture and other abuse.

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[shirlden]

1. Bring em on !!!!!

Didn't the anti-war people say the invasion of Iraq would destabilize the entire ME ? Listen up...Whistle Ass....you are a total idiot and the neocon horse you rode in on needs to be sent to a glue factory.

My apologizes to liberal horses everywhere.

:argh:

[lindashaw]

2. This has the potential of being a major straw that break the camel's back.

Turkey refused to support Bush's war for just this reason. Turkey knows this could start a civil war that no one can stop and will go straight over the border into Iraq. Do we have the spare troops who can go North? Where the largest oil reserves of Iraq are? Of course not! Everyone knows no more troops are needed.

[madrchsod]

3. oh that`s nice

chalk another one up for bush..the boys have started a firestrom....