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Russia's Lavrov: West to Blame for World Turmoil

FILE PHOTO: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Moscow, Russia December 27, 2023. Alexander Nemenov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Moscow, Russia December 27, 2023. Alexander Nemenov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Russia's Lavrov: West to Blame for World Turmoil

FILE PHOTO: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Moscow, Russia December 27, 2023. Alexander Nemenov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Moscow, Russia December 27, 2023. Alexander Nemenov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

The intrigues of Western countries whose dominance is ebbing away are largely responsible for pitching the world into turmoil, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Thursday.
Lavrov, in a year-end interview released by the official Tass news agency, warned that no one world-wide could be certain of escaping unscathed from Western machinations in 2024.
"Storms continue in the world and one of the reasons is that the ruling circles in the West provoke crises thousands of kilometers from their borders in order to resolve their own issues at the expense of other peoples," Tass quoted Lavrov as saying in extracts released ahead of full publication.
"It can be said that given conditions in which the West is clinging to the domination slipping away from it, no one can be protected against its geopolitical intrigues. There is a growing understanding of this."

Russia describes its war in Ukraine as an existential struggle against the "collective West" resolved to expand the reach of NATO and inflict a "strategic defeat" on Moscow.
It also says the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East is a result of the longstanding failures of US foreign policy and called for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In his comments to Tass, Lavrov called for de-escalation of the Middle East conflict, denouncing as "unacceptable" both acts of terror and "collective punishment".
"It is vital to break the vicious cycle of violence and do away with the injustice from which several generations of Palestinians have suffered," Reuters quoted him as saying.
"Only by doing this can stability be achieved in the zone of confrontation in the Middle East as a whole."
Lavrov also restated Russia's complaint that Ukraine was unwilling to hold peace talks to end the 22-month-old conflict in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special military operation".
"I must note an absence of any will for peace on the part of the regime of (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy," Lavrov told Tass.
"His representatives think only in categories of war and resort to totally aggressive rhetoric. There is no consideration of holding peace talks ... Draw your own conclusions."

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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)

Türkiye on Thursday insisted the PKK and all groups allied with it must disarm and disband "immediately", a week after a historic call by the Kurdish militant group's jailed founder.

"The PKK and all groups affiliated with it must end all terrorist activities, dissolve and immediately and unconditionally lay down their weapons," a Turkish defense ministry source said.

The remarks made clear the demand referred to all manifestations of Abdullah Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has led a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, costing tens of thousands of lives.

Although the insurgency targeted Türkiye, the PKK's leadership is based in the mountains of northern Iraq and its fighters are also part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key force in northeastern Syria.

Last week, Ocalan made a historic call urging the PKK to dissolve and his fighters to disarm, with the group on Saturday accepting his call and declaring a ceasefire.

The same day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that if the promises were not kept, Turkish forces would continue their anti-PKK operations.

"If the promises given are not kept and an attempt is made to delay... or deceive... we will continue our ongoing operations... until we eliminate the last terrorist," he said.

- Resonance in Syria, Iraq -

Since 2016, Türkiye has carried out three major military operations in northern Syria targeting PKK militants, which it sees as a strategic threat along its southern border.

Ankara has made clear it wants to see all PKK fighters disarmed wherever they are -- notably those in the US-backed SDF, which it sees as part of the PKK.

The SDF -- the bulk of which is made up of the Kurdish YPG -- spearheaded the fight that ousted ISIS extremists from Syria in 2019, and is seen by much of the West as crucial to preventing an extremist resurgence.

Last week, SDF leader Mazloum Abdi welcomed Ocalan's call for the PKK to lay down its weapons but said it "does not concern our forces" in northeastern Syria.

But Türkiye disagrees.

Since the toppling of Syria's Bashar al-Assad in December, Ankara has threatened military action unless YPG militants are expelled, deeming them to be a regional security problem.

"Our fundamental approach is that all terrorist organizations should disarm and be dissolved in Iraq and Syria, whether they are called the PKK, the YPG or the SDF," Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's ruling AKP, said on Monday.

Ocalan's call also affects Iraq, with the PKK leadership holed up in the mountainous north where Turkish forces have staged multiple air strikes in recent years.

Turkish forces have also established numerous bases there, souring Ankara's relationship with Baghdad.

"We don't want either the PKK or the Turkish army on our land... Iraq wants everyone to withdraw," Iraq's national security adviser Qassem al-Araji told AFP.

"Turkish forces are (in Iraq) because of the PKK's presence," he said, while pointing out that Türkiye had "said more than once that it has no territorial ambitions in Iraq".