Kurdish separatists declare cease-fire

ANKARA, Turkey – Kurdish separatist rebels Tuesday declared a “unilateral cease-fire” in attacks against Turkey and said they were ready for peace negotiations, but the group maintained the right to defend itself.\nThe statement came as the Turkish military intensified operations against the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, in the country’s southeast, on the border with Iraq.\nThe guerrillas have been fighting for autonomy in Turkey for more than two decades.\n“We are renewing our declaration to halt attacks against the Turkish army,” Abdul Rahman Chaderchi, the PKK official in charge of foreign affairs, said in northern Iraq, where the rebels have several bases.\n“We want peace, and we are ready for negotiations. But if Turkey decides to attack our bases inside Turkey or inside Iraqi Kurdistan, then this unilateral cease-fire will be meaningless. If we are attacked, we will fight back and we have the ability to confront any Turkish aggression,” he added.\nTurkish troops have massed at the frontier and shelled Iraqi territory while pursuing rebels, drawing criticism from the Iraqi government and raising fears that the conflict could draw in its NATO ally, the United States.\nThe Turkish government had no immediate response to the PKK statement.\nAuthorities generally ignore rebel statements, ruling out negotiations with “terrorists.” Turkey has rejected several past cease-fires declared by the group, vowing to maintain its military drive until all rebels surrender or are killed.\nIn Washington, the State Department said the cease-fire is no substitute for a total end to activity by the PKK.\n“The PKK is a terrorist organization,” spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. “We take quite seriously the concerns of the Turkish government. They’ve lost lives ... and it’s an issue that needs to be dealt with.”\nIt was unclear if the PKK announcement reflected a desire to ease pressure from the Turkish armed forces or was a public relations effort to portray the rebels as peace-seeking and the military as the aggressor. The rebels might also want to give Kurdish candidates in Turkish parliamentary elections next month a chance to make gains at the polls without being accused of links to \nrebel violence.\nThe PKK has accused the Turkish military of engineering the collapse of a unilateral rebel cease-fire declared on \nOct. 1, 2006.\nTurkey’s prime minister said Tuesday that the country needs to focus on fighting the PKK inside its borders amid a debate over whether Turkey should pursue rebels into \nnorthern Iraq.\n“There are 500 terrorists in Iraq; there are 5,000 terrorists inside Turkey. Has terrorism inside Turkey ended for us to think about an operation in northern Iraq?” said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.\nAfter a two-hour security meeting to discuss measures against the rebels, Turkey’s top government and military officials released a statement that said “the struggle against terrorism will be carried out with respect to democracy and law but with great determination.”