From: hpzg0650@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Hale P Zengingonul)
Subject: PKK Kampi kapatiliyor
Keywords: Kurds
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 16:41:52 GMT


  Biraz once Clari.news.europe'da bir haber okudum asagiya geciyorum.

							Pinar
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	CHTAURA, Lebanon (UPI) -- Kurds waging a bloody secessionist campaign
against Turkey have evacuated their base in eastern Lebanon after Syria
apparently yielded to pressure from Ankara to halt support of the
rebels, Lebanese security sources said Thursday.
	News of the move came as Turkish Interior Minister Ismet Sergin met
Syrian President Hafez Assad in Damascus.
	In the Syrian capital, a presidential spokesman said Assad accepted
an invitation from his Turkish counterpart Turgut Ozal to visit Turkey.
The move signals a remarkable thaw in previously tense relations between
the two nations.
	Sezgin, who arrived in the Syrian capital Tuesday, urged Syria to cut
off support to the Turkish Kurdish Worker's Party, or PKK, which has
waged an 8-year-old battle to establish a separate Kurdish state in
southeatern Turkey.
	``President Hafez Assad accepted an inviation from President Turgut
Ozal to visit Turkey,'' the Syrian spoesman said. ``The invitation was
accepted and the visit will take place in a proper time.''
	Assad's acceptance to visit Turkey consititutes a major breakthrough
in relations between the two neighbors which have been tense for months
after Ankara accused Damascus of aiding separatists seeking a Kurdish
independent state.
	In Chtaura, Lebanese security sources told United Press International
the PKK had halted its military activities in the Bekaa Valley in
Syrian-patrolled eastern Lebanon.
	The sources said there were no more guerrilla training sessions at
the PKK camp in the village of Halwa, 3 miles west of the Syrian-
Lebanese border. They added the Halwa camp may be permanently closed.
	Syrian troops stationed in the Bekaa Valley recently informed the
Kurds that military activities in the region were now forbidden, the
sources said.
	Some 300 PKK guerrillas evacuated the camp and took up positions in
surrounding hills, fearing a possible Turkish air strike, sources added.
	Earlier, PKK official Abu Baker said his men would bow to pressure to
close the camp.
	``In that case, we will only have to move our activities to inside
Turkish territories,'' Baker said.
	The Halwa camp was the only base which the PKK maintained since
coming to Lebanon in 1984.
	But Western diplomats in Beirut said Thursday the PKK were still well
armed, claiming the Kurdish rebels recently bought ammunition and
weapons worth $20 million from a disbanded Lebanese militia group.
	The deal, according to the diplomats, was struck between the PKK and
the Christian Lebanese Forces militia of Samir Geagea, which last year
reportedly shipped some of its heavy weaponry to the Croatian army in
Yugoslavia, Armenian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh and rebel guerrillas
in Africa.
	Geagea's militia has sold large amounts of ammunition, medium and
light weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns, the
diplomats told United Press International.
	Weapons and ammunition were delivered to PKK officials in the Bekaa
Valley and were later transported to rebel positions in southeatern
Turkey, sources said.
	Ankara Radio, monitored in Cairo, quoted the Turkish interior
minister Wednesday as saying Syria had agreed not to extend further
assistance to the PKK.
	Sezgin said Syria admitted PKK members were receiving military
training in the Bekaa Valley, but insisted the region was under the
control of the Lebanese army.
	Before leaving Ankara Tuesday, Sezgin said he would deliver a ``once
and for all'' warning to Damascus to stop supporting Kurdish rebels.
	Turkish Prime Minister Suliman Demeryel threatened last month to
close his country's border with both Syria and Iraq to prevent PKK
rebels from crossing into Turkey to launch attacks against government
troops.
	Western diplomatic sources estimated some 1,000 PKK fighters have
received military training in Syrian-controlled areas of Lebanon.
	The fighting between Kurdish rebels and Turkish troops, which has
included recent raids by the Turkish air force against rebel bases in
southeastern Turkey, have claimed thousands of lives, diplomats said.