PKK Warns Maliki Of Military Action Against Kurds

Arbil- Southern Kurdistan, Aug 10, (VOI) – An official in the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) warned Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of the "grave consequences" of any joint military action with the Turkish government against the Kurdish party.

"Any possible joint attack by Maliki and Turkey against the party will not serve his government and might even cause its demise," Abdul-Rahman al-Jadirji, the official in charge of the PKK's foreign relations department, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) by telephone. He said, "hostile" acts against the PKK would be deemed "hostile" against all Kurds.
Jadirji considered Maliki's statements against the PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, as "antagonistic." "Maliki should have worked on solving the Kurdish issue in Turkey via peaceful means and democratic dialogue," Jadirji emphasized, referring to Iraqi Kurd politicians' rejection of Maliki's agreement with the Turkish government, with the view that he (Maliki) "does not represent the position of the Iraqi Kurdistan region's government." Mahmoud Othman, a member of parliament from the Kurdistan Coalition (KC), the second largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament with 55 seats, commenting on a recent agreement between Maliki and the Ankara government during his visit to Turkey, had told VOI "we flatly reject any military operation targeting PKK inside the region's territories and this is what we agreed on with Maliki before his departure for Turkey."