A gold-plated pistol in one hand, worry beads in the other, Hazim Babat sits at the foot of the mountain range that separates Turkey from Iraq and contemplates war. He is the chieftain of the Babat clan, which is fighting alongside the Turkish armed forces against the Kurdistan Workers Party (pkk) separatist guerrillas. For years the Babats hunted pkk militants in Iraq with the help of Peshmerga warriors from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (kdp) from northern Iraq, led by Massoud Barzani. "The pkk slaughtered our women, our babies, they are going to pay the price," vows Mr Babat.
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