QANDIL (Iraq), Nov 1: A top Kurdish rebel based in northern Iraq called on Ankara to present a peace plan that could end his group’s two-decade armed rebellion against Turkey, in an interview with AFP on Thursday.

“I call upon Turkey to be courageous and present a peace plan to solve the problem. In this way it is possible to have a ceasefire,” said Abdurrahman Cadirci, a senior leader in the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Cadirci, who heads the PKK’s foreign relations office, said Turkey has carried out 24 military incursions into northern Iraq previously but “failed to eliminate us”.

“This time also nobody will stand behind Turkey against us,” he said, adding that a “step-by-step process can achieve progress and lead to a solution to our problem. A military solution has never succeeded.” Cadirci also called for the release of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been in prison in Turkey since 1999 and who he said was “living in harsh conditions” in his isolated island jail.

Ankara has threatened to carry out a military incursion into northern Iraq to flush out PKK rebels after they attacked a Turkish military patrol two weeks ago and killed 12 soldiers. Another eight soldiers have been captured.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along its border with Iraq, according to media reports, but the United States and its allies have been appealing to Ankara to refrain from action they fear could destabilise the region.

The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984 in a rebellion that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

Elaborating on the peace plan, Cadirci said Turkey must “give the Kurds their national, cultural and political rights and freedom of expression.”Cadirci urged Ankara to hold back from a military incursion and said any assault was “aimed at destroying the achievements in southern Kurdistan,”referring to northern Iraq’s Kurdish region — one of the calmest places in the violence-ravaged country.

“We urge them (Turkey) not to attack the PKK and to be reasonable. We have not attacked them and in the past we have also declared a ceasfire, but they keep attacking to eliminate us,” Cadirci said.—AFP