Turkey’s Kurdish rebels on Wednesday urged Kurdish youths to join the guerrillas and said war against Turkey had become inevitable, in a statement carried by a Kurdish news agency. The announcement marks an important change of position by the rebels, who had declared a unilateral cease-fire in 1999. The rebels said they “understood that the four-year-old peace process has been choked and that war has become inevitable.” The statement also accused Turkey of preparing to occupy northern Iraq to “suppress Kurdish freedom” there. Turkey says it will send thousands of troops into northern Iraq in case of U.S.-led war against Iraq. Most analysts believe Turkey wants to send in its forces to prevent the creation of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq and to fight the Turkish Kurdish rebels who have their main bases there. The rebel group, which last year changed its name from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress, or KADEK, withdrew four years ago to bases in northern Iraq when it declared a unilateral cease-fire. Full Story
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