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Re-branding an Old Struggle

February 7, 2002

The Turkish separatist movement PKK has announced that it is turning its back on its violent past and that it will re-name the group.

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A PKK rally in 1998.Image: AP

Rebel leaders said the terrorist attacks of the past year have convinced a group known for its bloody struggle for independence to give up their arms in favor of political discussion.

"After the events that took place on September 11, new international solutions are needed. The whole world, especially the Middle East, has changed," rebel leaders based in northern Iraq said in a statement sent to Kurdish satellite television channel, Medya TV.

The PKK's 15-year-long armed struggle Turkey has claimed more than 30,000 lives, but fighting largely ended after the arrest and imprisonment of the PKK’s leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.

Ocalan has now ordered his followers to withdraw from Turkey and seek cultural rights for Turkey's 12 million Kurds through political means.

Sources close to the PKK said alternative names being considered were the Democratic Republic Party or the Kurdistan Freedom Party.

A bloody past

The PKK was effectively one of the biggest guerrilla movements in the world. PKK units attacked police or military posts almost on a daily basis. Now it claims to put all of that behind it.

"From today onwards, the PKK's organisational and party endeavours in Turkey and countries belonging to the European Union have been stopped. No work will be conducted under the PKK name," the statement said.

But the leaders also hinted they could resort to arms again if their cultural demands failed to be met.

Turkey not buying it

The move to go legal has not done much to soften Ankara’s attitude towards the Kurdish cause. Turkey has dismissed Ocalan's plan as a ruse to escape execution and said it will never negotiate with the PKK.

Turkey describes the PKK guerrillas as "terrorists" and has lobbied the European Union to include the group on its list of deemed terrorist organisations. So far, without success.

As far as the Turkish government is concerned, the PKK may well wish to make a symbolic break from its paramilitary past. But it is likely that the Turkish Government will still attempt to have the organisation, whatever its name, blacklisted as terrorists by the EU.