Kurdish PKK rebel commander warns fighting may resume in Turkey

MESOP: WHILE APO IS VERY OPTIMISTIC – MURAT K. THREATENED WITH NEW WAR / X-MAS GREETINGS FROM KANDIL

December 24, 2014 – afp – QANDIL MOUNTAINS,— A Kurdish rebel commander has warned that fighting in Turkey’s Kurdish region in the southeast could resume by June if efforts to end a 30-year insurgency make no progress by then, news reports said Wednesday.

Murat Karayilan’s comments came days after Turkish and Kurdish officials declared a “new phase” in the peace process after widespread protests by Kurds in October had threatened to derail the talks. Karayilan told Iraq-based Roj News that imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan would be freed from prison by April and wiykd attend a congress of his Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, if the talks progress according to a plan drawn up by Ocalan himself. However, Karayilan threatened to resume hostilities before Turkey’s June elections if the government fails to advance the peace process by then. His comments were carried by Turkish and Kurdish media on Wednesday. “If steps are not taken, we will start the war before the elections,” Karayilan was quoted as telling Roj News. Turkish Deputy Prime Yalcin Akdogan responded on Wednesday, slamming Karayilan’s comments as “unreal, untimely, inopportune and provocative.”