By NNN-KUNA
Irbil : Iraqi President Jalal Talbani has urged the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) to lay down arms to avoid any further escalation of the border dispute between Iraq and Turkey.
Talbani, who was speaking during a joint press conference with Kurdistan President Masud Barzani in the Saladin summer resort town Sunday, called on PKK fighters to “leave Iraq, if they are determined to continue the struggle.”
He said the era was one of “dialogue, political and parliamentary action” and that the era of armed militias was over.
Talbani said that it was not admissible for PKK fighters to continue to resort to violence as they have been doing until now.
He said Iraqi regular forces would side with “neither the PKK nor with Turkey because the Iraqis are opposed to this battle and because they oppose violence of all kind.”
However, Talbani said it was “impossible to close down all PKK party branches in border areas and impossible to hand over their leaders to the Turkish government.”
“PKK strongholds are in mountain areas that have been inaccessible to the Turkish army with all its might. How can we (Iraqis) subdue them (PKK fighters)?” he said.
He said that Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zibari would head the Iraqi delegation to the upcoming conference of Istanbul, Talbani said.
He said that Iraq “will defend itself against any attack.”
Barzani promised that “when things cool down, we shall sit down with the president (Talbani) and discuss ways of reaching a reasonable solution to the PKK problem.”
Asked whether he viewed the PKK as a terrorist organisation, Barzani said he did not think so because the Turks were not offering a peaceful solution to their problem.
“If Turkey offers a peaceful solution and is rejected by the PKK, we shall then regard it (PKK) as a terrorist organisation,” Barzani said.
He urged both sides — the PKK and Turkey — to sort out their dispute outside Kurdistan.