No Surrender for PKK

Zuber Aydar, who heads the Kurdistan People's Congress, the main heir to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK, has said the group will not surrender and will defy any attempt by United States and Turkish forces to root them out in northern Iraq. Interviewed by the Awene newspaper about the likelihood of such an attack on PKK bases on Mount Qandil, Aydar said, "Until the Kurdish question is solved, we will not accept anything else. In the meantime, we will not agree to surrender – although we are not ruling out dialogue. If they come and attack us, we don't care what happens." The interview followed a report in theTurkish newspaper Sabah that Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and Kurdistan regional president Massoud Barzani had agreed to a plan whereby Turkey would issue a general amnesty to the PKK and allow 420 of its members to go to Europe. "We do not think Talabani or Barzani are involved in such a project,” said Aydar. “It’s propaganda by the Sabah newspaper." Aydar dismissed reports that the PKK planned to leave Mount Qandil, and his remarks were backed up by People's Congress spokesman Abdurrahman Cadirci, who told Awene, "Those who propagandise that we are leaving Qandil are enemies of the Kurdish people - they are Turkish intelligence. We are on high alert."