German foreign minister denies arming Kurdish PKK is an option

German foreign minister denies arming Kurdish PKK is an option.
BERLIN,— Germany's foreign minister ruled out the possibility of arming the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Thursday, after a senior ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested this could help efforts to defeat Islamic State (IS) militants.

"There is no question of that as long as the PKK threatens Turkey with fresh violence," said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier during an interview broadcast on Twitter.

Germany is sending weapons to Kurds in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region but Merkel has ruled out supporting the PKK, , which has spent decades fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds and listed as 'terrorist' organization by Ankara, U.S and EU. The PKK continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which overturned a decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the European Union's terror list.
Turkey, which has so far resisted pressure to join U.S.-led efforts to fight IS militants in northern Iraq and Syria, would oppose a move by European allied to arm the PKK.

But Volker Kauder, the leader of Merkel's Christian Democrats in parliament, told Spiegel Online: "I know the problems that Turkey has with the PKK, but to sit back and watch as IS takes important border towns and develops increasingly into a threat for global security cannot be the solution."

"I do not rule out supporting other groups. But this would have to be done with Turkey, not against it. That also applies to support for the PKK," added Kauder, whose party governs Germany in coalition with Steinmeier's Social Democrats.
Since it was established in 1984 the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state, but now limited its demands to to establish an autonomous Kurdish region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds,www.Ekurd.net who make up around 22.5 million of the country's 75-million population but have long been denied basic political and cultural rights, its goal to political autonomy. A large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with PKK rebels.   
news agency, Reuters