'Yes' result would be major blow for us, says PKK leader


A win for the "yes" camp in the upcoming April 16 referendum would deal a major blow to the outlawed terrorist organization PKK, confessed a senior PKK leader in a televised interview with the Fırat News Agency (ANF).Evindar Ararat said they will carry out some heavy campaigning in favor of the "no" vote, claiming that the PKK must say "no" in order to stop the existing regime in Turkey.Expressing fears that they would be finished in case of a result in favor of "yes" votes, Ararat said women need to get organized against the regime. She also urged people to celebrate Nevruz with slogans supporting "no," and highlighted the importance of looking after the ballot boxes on the referendum day.Recently, PKK sympathizers, in the guise of Nevruz celebrations, rallied in support of the "no" campaign near European Union institutions in several cities of Belgium and Germany. The PKK's leaders have openly campaigned for "no,"including Duran Kalkan, senior leader and one of the five founders of the PKK, who urged every social group in Turkey to vote "no" in the upcoming referendum for the recently accepted constitutional amendment package which would allow the country to switch to a presidential system.The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU, resumed its armed campaign against Turkey in July 2015 and has since been responsible for the deaths of approximately 1,200 security personnel and civilians, including women and children.The PKK and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), then known as the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), had previously opposed the 2010 referendum which reformed the judicial structure. The chair of the party, Selahattin Demirtaş, had called on people to boycott the referendum, while PKK militants employed scare tactics to intimidate the people of southeastern Turkey, on some occasions threatening residents by saying that they would "burn down villages" if people went to vote in the referendum.