ANKARA, Feb 5 (AFP) The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) urged Turkey's
 Kurds Monday to launch a massive campaign of civil disobedience in a bid to force Ankara to
 grant them greater cultural rights.

 The militant group said the Kurdish people should escalate "democratc resistance" involving
 street protests and strikes to force the introduction of reforms like Kurdish-language education
 and broadcasting.

 "It is time for the Kurdish people to step up their democratic resistance. Our people should
 launch political action in each and every field," it said in a statement carried in the Internet
 edition of the pro-Kurdish Ozgur Politika newspaper.

 Kurds should initiate demonstrations, protest marches and strikes, shut down businesses and
 boycott schools because of the lack of any Kurdish language or culture teaching in the state
 education system.

 "We call on the heroic Kurdish youth, the Kurdish women, who are ready for any sacrifice, our
 beloved children and all sections of our people to participate in the campaign," the statement
 said.

 "The state has not taken any step towards the recognition of basic freedoms for our people like
 broadcasting and education in their mother tongue," it said.

 The group restated its landmark 1999 decision to pursue a peaceful resolution to a decades-old
 conflict in Turkey. But it warned it would resume its military campaign if government forces
 moved against it.

 The PKK said in September 1999 that it was laying down its arms and withdrawing from Turkish
 territory to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict which has claimed some 36,500 lives since
 1984 when the rebels began a bloody campaign for self-rule in southeastern Turkey.

 Its declaration followed a peace appeal from PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, on a death row in a
 Turkish jail.

 Since then fighting in the area has subsided and several thousand rebels have moved to the
 north of neighbouring Iraq.

 But the powerful Turkish military has played down the peace bid as a ploy, and has pressed for
 the unconditional surrender of the organisation, prompting repeated PKK warnings that it would
 resume its armed campaign if attacked.

 The government, meanwhile, has failed to introduce reforms acknowledging Kurdish cultural
 rights despite increasing European Union pressure on Turkey, a membership candidate since
 December 1999.

 "The hand of peace extended by us and our leader should receive a positive response. Turkey
 should give priority to resolve the problem in peace, political dialogue and reconciliation," the
 PKK statement said.

 The group said it would use its "right to self-defense" in the face of a military attack.

 "But our priority will be to progress on the road to a democratic solution and peace," it added.

 Last month, Ocalan also threatened renewed armed struggle against the government if it
 launches any offensive against the PKK, apparently concerned at Ankara's efforts to forge an
 alliance with rival Kurdish groups inside northern Iraq.