PKK THREATENS FURTHER ATTACKS ON BAKU-CEYHAN OIL-PIPELINE
PanARMENIAN.Net
09.08.2008 13:22 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Kurdish rebels threatened more attacks on economic
targets yesterday after claiming responsibility for a blast in eastern
Turkey that shut down the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, an agency
close to the rebels reported.
"Attacks on economic interests have a deterring effect (on
Turkey)… As long as the Turkish state insists on war, such acts will
naturally be carried out," Bahoz Erdal, a commander of the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK), told the Firat news agency.
The PKK claimed responsibility for a blast Tuesday night on a section
of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline near Refahiye, in
Erzincan province.
The explosion sparked a fire which continued to burn yesterday,
triggering fresh jitters on world oil markets. The conduit, which
supplies oil to Western markets, is expected to remain shut for about
15 days.
The PKK said the explosion was "an act of sabotage" by its militants,
the details of which would be revealed later.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the
international community, has sabotaged gas and oil pipelines in
the past as part of its armed campaign for self-rule in the mainly
Kurdish southeast.
Erdal said the pipeline blast and other PKK attacks in recent weeks
were in response to an intensified Turkish crackdown against the
rebels, both inside Turkey and in neighboring northern Iraq, where
they take refuge.
Turkish military action "has required us to boost our resistance in
self-defense," he said.
The Turkish authorities have played down the possibility of sabotage
of the BTC pipeline, and the Anatolia news agency yesterday quoted
unnamed officials as saying that the PKK might be seeking publicity.
An official from Turkey’s state-run oil and gas company Botas said
Thursday that no trace of sabotage had been found but that a definite
conclusion could be reached only after the fire at the pipeline was
extinguished.
Refahiye’s sub-governor had earlier ruled out sabotage, saying a
fault had been detected before the blast.
Inaugurated in 2006, the 1,774-kilometer (1,109-mile) BTC pipeline is
the world’s second longest. It carries Azeri oil from the Caspian Sea
fields, the world’s third-largest reserve, to Turkey’s Mediterranean
port of Ceyhan, from where tankers transport the crude to Western
markets. It was pumping about 1.2 million barrels of oil per day
before the blast.
The fire may be put out today or tomorrow and repairs finished 10
days later, a senior source at Turkey’s Energy Ministry told Reuters
yesterday, giving an earlier date than some expectations. Once the
blaze is extinguished, efforts will be accelerated to assess the
damage to the 1-million-barrel-per-day pipeline and bring it back on
line within 10 days, an official said.
Analysts suggest the shutdown could last longer than Turkish officials
estimate and British energy giant BP said it was looking at alternative
means of delivering supplies to Western clients.
The PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey’s southeast in
1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives,
the AFP reports.