LIJWA, Iraq, 2 June 2005 — The rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) said yesterday it was ready to declare a cease-fire and offered to begin peace talks with Ankara. “We appeal to the Turkish government, asking it to end military operations in order to open the path of dialogue, and we are ready, on our side, to decree a ceasefire,” said leading party official Murad Karialan.
The outlawed rebel group, which last year called off a five-year-old unilateral ceasefire, has been holding a congress in the northern Iraqi village of Lijwa, close to the border with Iran.
The group waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey between 1984 and 1999. The conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives. The Turkish Army warned in May that an increasing number of PKK militants were sneaking back into Turkey from neighboring northern Iraq where they had retreated after the 1999 truce.
Meanwhile, human rights activists and liberal media blasted a new Turkish penal code that came into force yesterday, saying it undermined freedom of expression in the European Union candidate country. Passing a revised penal code is a key condition for Turkey before it can start EU entry talks in October. EU diplomats in Ankara said they would carefully monitor implementation of the code, but said Turkey had for the time being met their expectations by passing the legislation on time.
The new code improves women’s rights and imposes tougher penalties for rape, torture, smuggling of human beings and so-called “honor killings” in which women are killed by relatives for offences deemed to tarnish the family name. But it also envisages jail sentences for those found guilty of insulting anyone simply for being a Turk or state institutions, or of harming national interests and security. “Now you are less free,” said the headline of the liberal Radikal daily. “The penal code is an obstacle to freedom of information,” it said.
