Germany: Merkel ally leaves option open of arming Kurdish PKK

Germany: Merkel ally leaves option open of arming Kurdish PKK.
BERLIN,— A senior ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has left open the possibility of arming the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as part of efforts to defeat Islamic State (IS) militants.

Germany is sending weapons to Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan but Merkel has previously 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. Tthe 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 such a move.
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,"www.Ekurd.netVolker Kauder, the leader of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) in parliament, told Spiegel Online.

"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," Kauder added.

U.S.-led efforts to halt the militants have focused in the last few weeks on the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syrian Kurdistan, near the border with Turkey. 

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. 
Reuters