By SELCAN HACAOGLU, [Associated Press Writer - Aug 19, 2005]
A Kurdish rebel group fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast announced a one-month cease-fire Friday and said it planned to pursue indirect negotiations with the government. The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, said it was ordering its forces to hold fire until Sept. 20 — a dramatic step following a string of bombings at Aegean resorts claimed by militants and ambushes of Turkish troops in the southeast.

But the rebels added that they would defend themselves if attacked by Turkish forces.

"We will switch from an active defense to a passive one," said Remzi Kartal, a member of the executive committee of KONGRA-GEL, PKK's political wing, told The Associated Press in Brussels.

Turkey, which hopes to open membership negotiations with the European Union on Oct. 3, is under pressure to seek a political solution to the conflict, which has claimed the lives of 37,000 people and has battered the country's southeast since the rebels took up arms for autonomy in 1984.

During a recent visit to Diyarbakir, the largest city in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government had made mistakes in the region. He promised to bring investment in education, housing and health care to the southeast and to improve unemployment, which in some cities stands at more than 50 percent.

Kartal said his group's offer of a cease-fire was a response to Erdogan's remarks — and calls by Kurdish and Turkish intellectuals for a halt to violence.

The Kurdish rebel group has declared several unilateral cease-fires in the past. Turkey has never reciprocated, saying it will maintain its military drive until all rebels surrender or are killed.

Turkey has been pressuring the United States to crack down on Kurdish rebel hideouts in neighboring Iraq. The guerrilla group is recognized as a terrorist organization both by the United States and the European Union.

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Associated Press writer Robert Wielaard contributed to this report from Brussels, Belgium.