Iran Has Reasons to Spoil PKK-Turkey Peace Process
The Kurdistan Workers Party has announced a withdrawal from Turkey, a move that could isolate Iran and end a cease-fire between it and the PKK’s Iranian offshoot, reports Wladimir van Wilgenburg.
On April 25, rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) announced during a media conference in the Kandil Mountains of northern Iraq that they would start to withdraw from Turkey on May 8. There are indications that this process could isolate Iran and possibly end a cease-fire between the PKK’s Iranian offshoot and Iranian forces.
While the media conference was being held, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was holding a two-day drill called "Toward Jerusalem" in the province of West Azerbaijan (April 25-26). Two weeks before, there was a clash in the same province between Kurdish rebels and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in city of Maku, near the Turkish border. The Kurdish news agency Firat claimed that more than 176 Kurds were arrested in large campaigns.
According to Kurdish websites, seven members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard were killed, but this cannot be confirmed by independent sources. It is a sign that the September 2011 cease-fire between Kurdish rebels and Iran is under pressure, although Murat Karayilan, acting commander of the PKK, told the Kurdish TV channel Newroz that a cease-fire in Iran should continue, in an attempt to ease Iranian suspicions.
It is clear that Iran could spoil the peace process. Duran Kalkan, a member of the executive council of the Union of Communities of Kurdistan, an umbrella organization which includes the PKK, told the Turkish newspaper Vatan that there are many indications that Iran is trying to “oppose the process strategically and to sabotage it," adding, "We have to take precautions against this.”
