Ocalan warns of renewed fighting

Ocalan was sentenced to death in 1999 for treason

ANKARA, Turkey -- Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has warned that fighting between separatist Kurdish guerrillas and Turkish troops in northern Iraq could spread to Turkey.

The imprisoned Ocalan said the separatists would defend themselves if the Turkish Government launched attacks against them.

"We don't want war but if they come to us with the aim of extermination, we will use our legitimate right to self-defence, which is a universal right," he said in a statement.

Ocalan is currently held in isolation on Imrali island prison in the Sea of Marmara after being sentenced to death for treason in 1999.

Ocalan said the latest developments in northern Iraq "have both increased the risk of war and brought the possibility of that spreading into the whole area" including the southeastern Turkey.

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Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has waged an armed campaign for self-rule since 1984 in which more than 30,000 people have died in southeastern Turkey.

But clashes between the PKK and Turkish security forces have been reduced to sporadic skirmishes since Ocalan ordered his fighters to withdraw from Turkey last year.

Turkey maintains troops in neighbouring northern Iraq -- out of Baghdad's control since the end of the 1991 Gulf War -- but rejects claims that it supports the Iraqi Kurdish factions in the region.

Two Iraqi Kurd parties -- the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) -- who are former rivals administer the breakaway Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq.

A U.S.-brokered cease-fire agreement between the two parties requires them to prevent the PKK from setting up bases in the region.

"What the PUK and KDP should do is not provoke war, but mediate between Turkey and the PKK to find a democratic solution to the Kurdish problem," Ocalan said.

Turkey has said it will not carry out the death sentence on Ocalan while the European Court of Human Rights continues hearing his appeal.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Turkish Government Information Service
Kurdish Information Network
Kurdish Democratic Party
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan

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