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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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23Jan13
Turkish FM calls on Syrian Kurds to distance themselves from Assad gov't
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Wednesday called on Kurdish Democratic Union Party ( PYD), a Kurdish party affiliated with the outlawed Kurdish Workers ' Party (PKK), to distance from the Syrian government, and said that Turkey's peace process on Kurdish issue might affect Syria, Turkey's NTV news channel reported.
"We will monitor the attitude to be assumed by PYD," Davutoglu said during his visit to Swiss town of Davos for the World Economic Forum. "A rapid stabilization of Syria is important but all relevant groups in Syria should distance themselves from the regime. Of course I refer to the PYD," he said.
If the PKK would be disarmed and lay down weapons in a certain period, then this surely affect developments in other countries as well, said the minister.
The Turkish government is recently working on a peace plan through talks between PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) to end a three-decade-old insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Since then, over 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in conflicts involving the group.
[Source: Xinhua, Ankara, 23Jan13]
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