YEREVAN (Itar-Tass)–A ceremonious meeting marking the 20th anniversary of the Kurdistan Workers Party was held in Yerevan on Sunday on the initiative of the Council of Armenian Kurd Intellectuals–the "Kurdistan" committee and the Society of Armenian-Kurd Friendship.
Leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party Abdullah Ocalan is working for a political solution to the Kurdish problem and wants to show the world that the Kurdish people exist and have rights–a representative of the Front for the National Liberation of Kurdistan in Transcaucasia said at the meeting.
First Secretary of the Armenian Communist Party Central Committee Sergei Badalyan said he admired "the national liberation movement of the Kurdish people" and expressed the assurance that "the Kurdistan state would become the most close friend of Armenia."
The Armenian Kurd community is about 60,000 strong. The Kurds live in Yerevan and adjoining settlemen’s. The community has its schools–a theater–a newspaper and a Kurd section in the Union of Armenian Writers. Initially Armenian Kurds were indifferent to the activity of the Kurdistan Workers Party–but the party influence increased in the recent years.
The Armenian authorities have repeatedly stated that the republic does not house any strongholds–camps or gunmen of the Kurdistan Workers Party.
