November 09, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 27, 1428

ANKARA, Nov 8: Turkey’s main Kurdish party urged a peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict on Thursday as Ankara warned of legal sanctions if the party fails to sever its alleged links with separatist rebels.

The Democratic Society Party (DTP) held a convention here to elect a new leader amid tight security and against a backdrop of Turkish threats to strike Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq, a move the party strongly opposes.

“We should work for reconciliation and social peace within the country instead of directing our energy and resources across the border,” Nurettin Demirtas told the gathering, hours before he was elected party chairman.

The DTP, which holds 20 seats in the 550-member parliament, advocates a peaceful settlement to the Kurdish conflict and broader cultural and political rights for the Kurdish community.

But its refusal to brand the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) a terrorist group, as Ankara does, and the sympathy its members often voice for the rebels have sparked accusations that it is a political tool of the PKK.

The party came under fresh attack after three of its lawmakers travelled to northern Iraq on Sunday to participate in the release of eight Turkish soldiers captured by the PKK in a deadly ambush last month.

Television footage showed them shaking hands with rebel fighters and signing papers on a table adorned by the portrait of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.—AFP