OTHERWISE NO SUPPORT FOR WASHINGTON BY PKK PKK Leader Demands US Mediation in Renewed Conflict With Turkey / Cemil Bayık tells Telegraph that Washington risks losing PKK support

MESOP : CEMIL BAYIK ASKS FOR HELPING HAND OF IMPERIALIST ARCH ENEMY UNITED STATES –

Basnews | Luke Coleman | Edit – 17.08.2015 10:59 – QANDIL – “I repeat my call that the US mediate in this situation between us and Turkey, and if they give us a guarantee we accept that role. Unless there are guarantees we cannot make unilateral steps.”

So says PKK leader Cemil Bayık in an interview with The Daily Telegraph published today. In what can be interpreted as a conciliatory move, Bayık has opened the door to a peaceful resolution to the conflict with Ankara that has seen the breakdown of the ceasefire that began early 2013.However, the interim leader who shares the position with two others, warned that should the US fail to intervene, they risk losing a key ground ally in the war against Islamic State (IS).“If America continues to back Turkey’s policies it is possible it will lose the Kurds. If America loses the Kurds, it will be difficult to defeat IS.”The leader, also known as Cuma, was speaking from a PKK base in the Qandil mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. He said that the US was already indirectly involved in attempts to stop the renewed conflict which has seen hundreds of bombs dropped on PKK positions in Iraq and Turkey and tens of Turkish security personnel killed. “Of course there are messages, there are meetings, letters and they are likely to develop more.” He did not reveal the identities of the intermediaries. Bayık’s tone was not entirely without anger, and he directly accused Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of engineering the resumption of hostilities prior to an expected snap election.