QANDIL MOUNTAINS, Iraq — A defiant spokesman for the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party said Saturday that if Turkey attacks the group’s bases in Iraq’s northeastern mountains, the organization’s fighters “will teach the Turks an unforgettable lesson.”
Sozdar Avesta, a member of the party’s political bureau, said in Iraq’s border region that despite international pressure the guerrilla group would not abandon its struggle against Turkey.
“We are fighting for the liberation of Kurdish people, we are fighting for our identity, language, our legitimate rights and self-determination,” said Avesta, 35.
Her remarks came as officials from Iraq and the United States, at an international meeting in Istanbul, pledged to try to stop cross-border attacks by PKK forces against military forces in Turkey’s heavily Kurdish southeast.
“Working to obtain rights under dictatorships without resorting to arms is a difficult and impossible matter,” Avesta said.
She defended the PKK’s assaults on Turkish forces, saying Ankara had a history of “detention and genocide campaigns against the Kurds. Therefore the PKK took up arms to defend itself.”
And she warned that if Turkey launches attacks inside Iraq, the PKK will respond. “The PKK fighters will teach the Turks an unforgettable lesson,” she vowed.
The Turkish military reportedly has amassed 100,000 troops along the Turkey-Iraq border.
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