'We chose it': PKK fighters cherish life in Iraq's mountains; PKK urges Turkey to free Ocalan to advance peace process

A Kurdish militant picks his way along a switchback road in Iraq's mountains before pulling over to alert his comrades in a nearby hidden bunker that they are about to have company.

After calling from a phone dangling from a tree, he leads a team of AFP journalists into a bunker under the Qandil mountains, where they have been granted rare access to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rear base in northern Iraq.

"A peace process doesn't mean leaving the mountains," said Serda Mazlum Gabar, a 47-year-old commander with her long, rust-coloured hair and unfailing smile.

"Even if we leave, we will live the same way," she added. "Nature doesn't scare me, but I wouldn't feel

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