Kurdish 'peace envoys' risk jail in Turkey

A group of suspected Kurdish terrorists and sympathizers who surrendered to Turkey in a goodwill gesture will stand trial for links to a terrorist organization in the Southeast, court officials said Tuesday.

Eight members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has led a bloody 25-year fight against Ankara, risk up to 20 years in jail for belonging to and promoting "a terrorist organization," the sources said.

Another 22 people — refugees from a United Nations camp in northern Iraq — have been charged with collaborating with the PKK and spreading its propaganda, risking sentences of up to 15 years, they said. The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community.

The defendants were to answer the charges in separate trials, expected to begin soon in Diyarbakır, the largest city of the Southeast.

The so-called "peace envoys" — who totaled 34 people including four children — crossed from Iraq on Oct. 19 and turned themselves in to the authorities in a show of support for a government plan to expand Kurdish rights.

The initiative, however, has since faltered amid a series of events, including the banning of Turkey's main Kurdish political party in December, coupled with Kurdish violence.

Ankara had hoped to activate a two-pronged strategy – improving Kurdish rights while keeping the PKK under military pressure to cajole members into laying down arms and leaving their bases in the mountains of northern Iraq.

The government says it remains committed to expanding Kurdish freedoms, but has yet to take action.


/Hurriyet Daily News/