Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has warned that his Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) will renew armed struggle against the government if Ankara attacks the rebels, according to a statement.
"We do not want war, but if we are attacked with the aim of being eradicated, we will use the universal right of legitimate defense," Ocalan said in a statement released by his lawyers.
Fighting between government and rebel forces in the mainly Kurdish-populated southeast and east has eased considerably since September 1999, when the PKK said it was halting its 15-year armed campaign for self-rule and pulling out of Turkish territory to seek a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish conflict.
AFP