Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETÎ
Operation Provide Comfort 'n .wi~ a
peaee plan in its high level talks WIth
two U.S. delegations from the
National Security Council and State
Depar1l11ent.
'~ is not something that will
happenwith one meeting. But it ,is
wfiere we are trying to lead
Washington:' Sanberk said. Mark
Parris, the head of the U.S. delegation
that arrived in Ankara
Wednesday, said that new ideas had
been launched in the talks on the
security of the Turco-Iraqi border
and the protection of the northern
Ira9.iKurds.
'Oeeration Provide Comfort is
very ImI>0rtant for both factors,"
Parris, the Near East adviser of
National Security Council, said. He
did not elaborate further.
While Sanberk told the TDN that
there were "no concrete proposals on
thè' restl1lcturing of the Operation
Provide Comfort," he said that a
I(mg,-term peace plan can be based
upon U.N. Resolution 688, which
alms to reconcile the Baghdad
administration with the Kurds.
"If the resolution is realized,
Provide Comfort can be lifted as Iraq
restores its full sovereignty on all its
territory," Sanberk said. "This is
what we aim at but we are acutely
aware that the sides are not ready for
it." ,
Sanberk indicated that until this
was realized, Turkey "would not
consent to the safe haven in northern
Iraq;' to become an ''unsafe region"
for Turkish security.
Claiming that the Iragi Kurds
should maintain the secunty in the
region, Sanberk said: "It is incom-
.patible to think to make the safe
.haven a zone of insecurity for
Turkey, then, at the same time, ask
for the extension of Operation
Provide Comfort." "If we ~et too
pressed on security, we can Impose
tighter measures on Habur Border
Gate~ If the insecurity in northern
.Iraq becomes a threat to Turkey's
security, this will surely have an
effect on Provide Comfort," Sanberk
said.
The point is also expected to be
put forcefully to a delegation çf
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (pUK:),
which will arrive in Ankara this
week.
The Turkish Parliament is expected
to vQte on extending the mandate
of Operation Provide Comfort II
before the end of June.
Despite constant criticism of va,rious
deputies, the force has been
extended eight times since 1992.
A new round of talks between
Turkey and ,the United States take
place this weekend, as Deputy
Assistant Secretary Eric Newson
pays a visit tthe Turkish capital.
"The sides will take up regional
issues and defense cooperation,"
Nurettin Nurhn, the Foreign
Ministry's new spokesman, said.
Terrorist chief plays cloak
and dagger with press
.'
By Haitham Haddadin
Reuters StaffWriter
IN THE BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon-
Interview~ in which guerrilla chief
Abdullah Ocalan called on Tuesday for a
ceasefrre in the Kurds' separatist war with
Turkey were to have been held in a Beirut
hotel, but reporters knew better.
A long-dIstance caller said the meeting
would be in a luxury hostelry, but when
reporters met up with the elusive guerrilla
leader it was after another cloak-and-dagger
trek to eastern Lebanon's Syrian-policed
Bekaa Valley - a haven for Moslem militants
and leftist groups during Lebanon's
1975-90 civil war.
Times have changed for the husky,
coarse-voiced Marxist chief of the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) since he
was declared persona non grata by Beirut in
1993.
Lebanon's Prime Minister RafIk al-Hariri
no longer wants PKK guerrillas preparing in
Lebanon for ~~tacks in Turkey and has
vowed that if Ocalan is cau~ht he will be
thrown out. Our guide, who IdentifIed himself
as a PKK supporter, would not disclose
the venue but told us at the hotellobby to
drive behind him to a Bekaa town an hour
after a 2 p.m. interview deadline had
passed.
The town he named was another decoy.
When we fInally arrived at the actual site
we waited for two more hours at a modest
house before Öcalan, dressed in a khaki
shirt, showed up with three bodyguards
brandishing AK-47 machine guns.
"We are sony for the inconvenience but
this is for secunry reasons," the soft-spoken
guide, who declined to be named, said in
broken Arabic.
The mustachioed Öcalan, raising his fist
in the air often as he spoke, ra~ped the
United States saying it was pressunng Syria
and Iran - where 600,000 and 3.5 million
Kurds live respectively - to stop supporting
the PKK.
Sittin~ with the red PKK guerrilla flag
behind him, it seemed almost ICOniCthat he
spoke in Turkish not Kurdish, a language he
says the Turks are trying to ban.
He told reporters he was ready for peace
if Ankara was ready for a political solution
to the separatist campaign that has killed
15,000 people since 1984. Turkey has
re~ponded .by saying it would not negotiate
WIthterronsts.
At New Rouz festivities marking the
Kurdis~ new ye~, PKK guerrillas usually
wave Rlctures of Ocalan, known to them as
"Apo , and chant "Biji Apo, Biji PKK
(Long Live Apo, Long üve PKK)".
After the interview, the Kurdish guide
politely asked our driver to bring the car
close to the house so the televisIOn crew
could put the camera in the boot and not
arouse suspicions among Lebanese neighbors.
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