Turkey Urges Kurds to Prolong Cease

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

From: tabe at newsdesk.aps.nl
Subject: Turkey Urges Kurds to Prolong Ceasefire
Reply-To: kurdeng at aps.nl


Turkey Urges Kurds to Prolong Ceasefire
      ANKARA, May 31 (Reuter) - Turkey on Wednesday urged two feuding Iraqi
Kurdish groups to extend their ceasefire, which is due to expire on June 1,
to ensure stability in northern Iraq.

    ``If clashes resume, even the seeming quiet in the region will become
impossible to preserve... We see the benefits of extending the current
ceasefire,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Nurettin Nurkan told a news briefing.


    ``We call on the leaders of both groups to heed our assessment and
refrain from acts to jeopardise security and stability in northern Iraq,''
Nurkan said.

    A bitter conflict which broke out between the KDP and PUK in December has
cost dozens of lives on both sides.

    The dispute all but demolished their de facto administration which is
protected by a Western allied force stationed in southern Turkey since the
end of the Gulf War from possible attacks by Baghdad.

    Nurkan said Iraqi Kurdish civilians stood to lose first from a breakdown
of the ceasefire declared in April.

    Turkish officials met spokesmen of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Ankara this month to enlist
their support against Turkey's separatist Kurdish rebels.

    ``Other undesirable elements,'' namely the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK), would benefit from the turmoil, he said.

    Turkey has a vested interest in stability in northern Iraq where PKK
guerrillas have established bases they use for cross-border forays inside
Turkey.

    For six weeks from March 20, Turkish forces drove into northern Iraq to
smash the bases. The campaign which officials say has cleared rebel presence
for the time being, cost Turkey heavily in terms of criticism from its
Western allies.

    KDP leader Massoud Barzani and PUK chief Jalal Talabani are expected to
visit Ankara separately but no date has been set.

Ankara Puts Denmark on Military Blacklist
      ANKARA, May 31 (Reuter) - Turkey said on Wednesday it had banned arms
and military equipment purchases from NATO-ally Denmark after Copenhagen
halted sales to Ankara.

    ``Denmark... has lost the quality of being a reliable partner in military
procurements. Turkey has decided to place Denmark on its red list,'' Foreign
Ministry spokesman Nurettin Nurkan said.

    Denmark stopped the sales this month because of Turkey's six-week-long
military operation in northern Iraq against separatist rebel Kurds. Turkey
ended the incursion on May 2.

    Nurkan said Danish armament firms would not be allowed to bid in Turkish
military tenders. Military trade between the two countries was not
significant he added, but gave no details.

    Nurkan also said Ankara was incensed at Denmark for allowing the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to open an office in Copenhagen recently.

    ``It is unacceptable that Denmark has permitted the opening of a bureau
in Copenhagen of the terrorist PKK's so-called political wing despite...the
violation of international law this act constitutes,'' he said.

    Turkey recently placed the Netherlands and South Africa on its ``red
list'' of undesirable arms procurers after both stopped sales in reaction to
the northern Iraqi operation.

    Its major supplier Germany has also suspended military sales following
the cross-border campaign but Ankara has not placed it on the boycott list.
Norway also banned arms sales to Turkey.

    More than 16,000 people have died in the PKK insurgency which began in
1984 for a Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey.


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 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)