ISTANBUL, Oct. 22 — The Kurdish separatist group that is fighting Turkey from hide-outs in northern Iraq has declared its willingness for a cease-fire, according to a statement posted on a Kurdish Web site on Monday night.
Turkish officials do not officially respond to such statements because they feel that would amount to recognizing the group, but have viewed similar announcements skeptically, saying that the group has issued many such declarations, but that it rarely holds to them.
The Turkish military continued shelling along its southern border against the Kurdish group, known as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or the P.K.K., a day after the group ambushed Turkish soldiers, killing 12. The attack touched off a serious escalation of tensions between Turkey, a NATO member; Iraq; and the United States.
In a fresh sign of trouble, the Turkish military acknowledged in a statement that eight of its soldiers were missing after Sunday’s ambush. The militants released the names of eight Turkish soldiers, mostly conscripts from different cities throughout Turkey, and said they were holding them in captivity.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the Kurdish group’s claim that it had the soldiers was unsubstantiated, describing it as a “psychological operation.”
“Right now, as you all know, surveillance and military action conducted by our armed forces continue intensely in the region,” he said before leaving for an official visit to London. “We hope that as a result of all this searching and clashes we would have the opportunity to find our eight privates.”
The Kurdish group said in the statement on Monday that it was willing to stop fighting. “We extend the hand of peace once again,” said the statement, posted on the Web site of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the political party of Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, who is a Kurd.
The site gave as its source the Firat News Agency, an online service that often carries statements from the P.K.K. “We are ready to discuss the issue,” the statement said.
The United States has been pressing Mr. Talabani and Massoud Barzani, the leader of the northern Kurdish region in Iraq, to take steps to curb the P.K.K. The Web site of Mr. Talabani’s party said the group made its statement after requests from Iraqi Kurdish leaders.
A Turkish government spokesman did not return calls requesting comment on Monday night. But Turkish officials have been highly skeptical of cease-fires declared by the group in the past. They contend that the cease-fires often have more to do with weather than political intent, because they frequently come just as winter starts to complicate raids in the mountainous terrain in which the militants operate.
The Kurds say the Turks regularly trample on their efforts to make peace.
“Neither the government nor the military is likely to take this cease-fire seriously,” said Faik Bulut, a Kurdish writer and expert on the P.K.K. based in Ankara.
Turkish officials acknowledge that they do not expect a major crackdown on the group by the United States. But they say that with the recent attacks that have left nearly 40 dead, they have to demonstrate to the public that they are doing something to stop them. The toll has struck a nerve in Turkish society, and it prompted protests across the country on Monday.
In that respect, a cease-fire declaration would be nearly worthless in defusing the current crisis, because the Turkish public views such announcements with equal skepticism.
“I do not think the Turkish public would give any credit to this cease-fire, either,” Mr. Bulut said in a telephone interview.
The militant group has called for cease-fires five times since 1993, according to a P.K.K.-linked Web site, Rojaciwan.com. The most recent, in October 2006, was broken last spring on a number of occasions.
A central paradox is built into Turkey’s diplomacy. Turkish officials refuse to hold talks with the regional Iraqi Kurdish authority, saying that recognizing its autonomy would legitimize Kurdish claims for independence, and prefer instead to hold talks with Iraq’s government in Baghdad. But the area where P.K.K. fighters hide is controlled by the local Kurdish authority, and Iraq’s central government has virtually no authority there.
“There are two powers in northern Iraq: the Americans and the Iraqi Kurds,” said Morton Abramowitz, the American ambassador to Turkey during the Persian Gulf war. Referring to the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, he said, “Talking to Maliki is useless.”
“So the Turks are in a quandary themselves,” he said.
Mr. Bulut said the cease-fire could be a way to open up “back channels” of diplomacy that could eventually lead to a softening of rhetoric.
“No government or military official would come up and say that they have decided not to launch a military operation because a cease-fire was declared,” he said. “But circles close to the state can announce that the P.K.K. has retired back to their hide-outs and that winter has come, gradually easing the tension.”
Turkish officials gave mixed messages about the potential for an offensive, saying that Turkey would pursue more diplomacy before sending its troops over the border, but that soldiers were poised for military action. The government received permission from Parliament last week for a military incursion.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Ali Babacan, who is scheduled to meet with Iraqi officials in Baghdad on Tuesday, said, “There is not even a tiny bit of hesitance.”
Cemil Cicek, a government spokesman, after a cabinet meeting on Monday, put it bluntly: “We did not have this motion ratified to keep in a closet.”
U.S. and Britain Propose Talks
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (Reuters) — The United States and Britain have proposed a meeting next month of officials from the United States, Turkey and Iraq to discuss how to stop Kurdish rebel attacks into Turkey.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Britain’s visiting foreign secretary, David Miliband, said on Monday that they hoped ministers from the three countries could meet during a conference on Iraq, in Istanbul on Nov. 2-3.
Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting.
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