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

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Baszn Ozeti
Former PKK members join KDP front in fight
against separatist group
• Ongoing splits within the PKK will affect Syrian policy, sources say
Saadet Drue
Ankara- Turkish Daily News
More than 700 former members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have joined the Kurdistan
Democratic Party front in the fight against their former comrades.
Western diplomatic sources told the Turkish Daily News about the surrender of former "so-called" PKK
commander Semdin Sakik to the KDP, and said that there are more than 700 former PKK members in the
KDP front who are now fighting against the PKK. "They are reported to be fighting better than the KDP
peshmergas," diplomatic sources said.
Shaqlawa-Koysinjaq process
Meanwhile, relations between the rival Iraqi Kurdish groups, the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
(PUK), are getting better and better following the four bilateral meetings held in the framework of the
Shaqlawa-Koysinjaq process, which was initiated by the KDP and the PUK.
According to sources in the region who briefed the TDN, a fifth meeting will be held in the coming days:
Meetings are being held both in Shaqlawa and Koysinjaq.
There is a permanent committee which includes six Kurdish politicians from the KDP and the PUK.
Last week, after a meeting on March 20, prisoners were exchanged between the KDP and the PUK.
Sakik's surrender and Syria
Turkish officials, commenting on the surrender of Sakik to the KDP, said that the ongoing splits within the
PKK will certainly affect the Syrian attitude towards the PKK.
"They have seen that the PKK is breaking up and they are playing for a good card," a Turkish official said.
"Perhaps they can take a further step which will soften Turkey's anger, such as deporting PKK leader
Abdullah Ocalan or extraditing some of the leading PKK members to Turkey. But, of course, Syria will only
do this after being assured that they will receive the necessary amount of water, which they are arguing for,"
he said.
There are three main obstacles to improved Turkey-Syria relations:
• The presence of Ocalan in Damascus
• Water (the sharing of waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers)
• Territorial claims by Syria on the Turkish southern region of Hatay
Before Syria makes any concession on the PKK, Ankara will not "abandon its concerns" in order to ease its
ties with Syria, reports said.
27 March 1998, Copyright@ Turkish Daily News
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