BERLIN – A top Kurdish politician said Monday it would be difficult for Kurdish fighters to disarm before leaving Turkey under a peace process, stressing that the key issue was that they depart peacefully without contact with the Turkish military. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government is seeking a weapons-free pullout by militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as part of a drive to end a three-decades long conflict which has killed more than 40,000 people. The militants themselves, however, have expressed concern that they could be vulnerable to attack. Hundreds were killed in clashes with security forces in a previous withdrawal in 1999. “Prime Minister Erdogan says disarmament must occur but even he knows that is technically impossible. He says, ‘Leave the weapons in a cave or bury them, do whatever you want,' but who will regulate this?,” Selahattin Demirtas, co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), told Reuters in an interview during a visit to Berlin. “So we shouldn't get too hung up on this issue, and it appears that the government won't turn this into a crisis.” So far, the issue of disarmament has been the sticking point in the peace process. The PKK has said its forces will not withdraw as Erdogan has demanded. The rebels declared a ceasefire with Turkey last month, in response to an order from their jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, after months of talks with Ankara. The next step is a pullout of an estimated 2,000-2,500 fighters from Turkish territory to bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. – Reuters
