BAGHDAD, 12 November 2003 — The outlawed Turkish Congress for Democracy and Freedom in Kurdistan (KADEK) — which as the PKK fought for self-rule in southeastern Turkey for 15 years — announced yesterday it was disbanding to make way for a more “democratic” movement.
“KADEK is being dissolved in order to make way for a new, more democratic organizational structure that allows for broader participation,” said an English version of a statement by the general executive board.
The dissolution was approved unanimously at a KADEK congress in northern Iraq on Oct. 26, said the document. A new conference would be held in the north in the coming days, a KADEK representative said. Turkey for its part shrugged off the announcement as “a cheap tactical maneuver”.
“This new structure shall be representative of the Kurdish people’s interests, legitimate under international criteria and conducive to the pursuit of democratic and lawful political articulation with a view on negotiating a peaceful settlement with the dominant nation states,” the KADEK statement said.
KADEK, which Ankara and Washington brand a terrorist body, admitted that it had given the impression of being “a mere continuation of the PKK”. “The program and the organizational structure of the KADEK fell short of meeting the requirements of political struggle for pluralist democratic civil life,” read the statement.
“Residues of the Leninist party model, as well as patterns of traditional dogmatic Middle East thought rendered it a narrow and hierarchical formation that failed to incorporate new social groups and democrats elements.”
KADEK is the direct successor of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which fought a bloody struggle against Turkey for Kurdish self-rule until September 1999, when it declared a unilateral cease-fire.
The cease-fire followed the capture in February 1999 of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence on a remote prison island in Turkey, after an estimated 36,500 deaths since the PKK took up arms in 1984. The PKK changed its name to KADEK in April 2002 and vowed to pursue democratic means to resolve the conflict with Turkey, but still has forces based in northern Iraq. The statement came after border clashes at the weekend.
A Kurdish fighter working for the Iraqi border guard was killed and 13 others wounded in an exchange of fire with gunmen, a US army spokeswoman said Monday. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul identified the gunmen as members of the PKK, but the US Army said it was not clear who the attackers were.
Gul — who has been lobbying for the United States to move against the PKK guerrillas — billed the shootout as the first armed confrontation between US forces and the Turkish Kurdish separatist movement.
Turkey had recently expressed frustration over what it saw as US reluctance to purge northern Iraq of the PKK. Last month, the two sides agreed on an “action plan,” including military measures, against the group. Ankara says up to 5,000 PKK rebels are hiding in northern Iraq, where it also has troops.
