A dramatic change
The role of Turkey’s main Kurdish guerrilla party is shifting remarkably
Feb 21st 2015 | QANDIL MOUNTAINS
Ocalan turns Swiss
“THE new PKK is quite different from the old PKK,” says Cemal Bayik, a co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party who heads the movement at its guerrilla headquarters in the rugged, snow-covered Qandil mountains where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey converge. He dismisses its doctrinaire Marxist-Leninist past, and now says, “We reject class dictatorship and we reject dictatorship of the party.” Much more meaningfully, according to Mr Bayik the PKK now strenuously denies it wants a separate state in south-eastern Turkey, where Kurds predominate.
More:Turkey’s Kurdish rebels: A dramatic change | The Economist