{"id":70108,"date":"2013-04-27T20:58:50","date_gmt":"2013-04-27T17:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=70108"},"modified":"2014-01-08T11:34:37","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T09:34:37","slug":"turkey-says-forces-will-take-care-during-kurdish-rebel-pullback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/04\/27\/turkey-says-forces-will-take-care-during-kurdish-rebel-pullback\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey says forces will take \u2018care\u2019 during Kurdish rebel pullback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AFP, Ankara &#8211;<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_70109\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70109\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-70109\" alt=\"Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels walk as they gather to listen to the speech of the PKK leader on April 25, 2013 in the Qandil mountain. (AFP)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/1.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/1-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-70109\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kurdistan Workers&#8217; Party (PKK) rebels walk as they gather to listen to the speech of the PKK leader on April 25, 2013 in the Qandil mountain. (AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Turkey said Friday its forces would show \u201cgreat care\u201d during a pullback starting next month by Kurdish rebels heading back to their bases in Iraq, in a major step to end three decades of hostilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur armed forces and collective security forces will do their tasks with great care and attention,\u201d Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on Turkish television, without elaborating further.<\/p>\n<p>Arinc did not provide any details on the government strategy during the withdrawal of outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK) fighters from the Turkish territory but instead called on everyone to \u201cact with sensitivity\u201d and avoid any action which could \u201csabotage\u201d the peace process.<\/p>\n<p>The PKK\u2019s retreat from Turkey will be closely watched because previous withdrawal attempts by the group have seen clashes between Turkey\u2019s security forces and the PKK.<\/p>\n<p>Arinc\u2019s comments came a day after Kurdish rebels announced they would on May 8 begin withdrawing from Turkey into their safe haven in northern Iraq amid a peace push between Ankara and the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.<\/p>\n<p>The pledged withdrawal, which is expected to take several months, is aimed to be finalized \u201cas soon as possible,\u201d according to PKK leader Murat Karayilan.<\/p>\n<p>There are an estimated 2,000 armed PKK militants inside Turkey and up to 5,000 in northern Iraq, which has been used by Kurdish rebels as a springboard for attacks targeting Turkish security forces in the southeast.<\/p>\n<p>Karayilan said independent observers could monitor their retreat but warned that his fighters would resort to self-defense if it came under attack by the Turkish army.<\/p>\n<p>Arinc welcomed the PKK announcement.<\/p>\n<p>The Kurdish rebel movement started an armed rebellion for self-rule in the Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984, which has cost around 45,000 lives.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey has entered a process of a ceasefire with the PKK after months of clandestine negotiations with the group\u2019s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been serving a life sentence for treason on Imrali Island off Istanbul since 1999.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFP, Ankara &#8211; Turkey said Friday its forces would show \u201cgreat care\u201d during a pullback starting next month by Kurdish rebels heading back to their bases in Iraq, in a major step to end three decades of hostilities. \u201cOur armed forces and collective security forces will do their tasks with great care and attention,\u201d Deputy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":70109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[1613,1280],"class_list":["post-70108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-bulent-arinc","tag-pkk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}