Massacre in Kobane would end PKK's peace talks with Turkey: Öcalan

ISTANBUL - Reuters

Smoke rises after a mortar shell landed in the south of the city center of Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, seen from the Turkish side of border. Thousands of refugees from Kobani have arrived in the Turkish town of Suruç in recent days. AP Photo

Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), has warned that peace talks between his group and the Turkish government will come to an end if Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) militants are allowed to carry out a massacre in a predominantly Kurdish town on the Syrian border.
   
ISIL militants have besieged the border of town of Kobane for more than two weeks, sending more than 150,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing to Turkey and piling pressure on the NATO member to intervene.
   
"If this massacre attempt achieves its goal it will end the process," Öcalan said in a statement released by a delegation which visited him in jail on Oct. 1.
  
"I urge everyone in Turkey who does not want the process and the democracy voyage to collapse to take responsibility in Kobane," he added in the statement, released on Oct. 2.
   
Kurdish forces allied to the PKK, the People's Defence Units (YPG), are fighting against the ISIL insurgents attacking Kobane.

The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.