PKK members wary of return to Turkey

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party residing in Iraqi refugee camps will not return to Turkey until conditions are satisfactory, representatives said.

Ankara is embarking on a plan to find a political solution to lingering issues with the Kurdish minority. Its plans involve cultural considerations for Kurds and modest amnesty offers for rebels with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Ankara laid out plans to start accepting Kurdish refugees into Turkey in groups of 300 to 400 from the Makhmour refugee camp in northern Iraq.

Gulbahar Cicekci, a representative for the PKK, said statements on cultural concessions from Ankara were not enough to address their concerns, Turkey's leading English-language daily Today's Zaman reports.

"No one can come back (to Turkey) before providing necessary constitutional and safety conditions, such as schooling in one's mother tongue," he said.

The United Nations established the Makhmour refugee camp in 1998 in response to violence in southern Turkey.