In the latest of many warnings, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki Thursday that Turkey was unwilling any longer to tolerate the presence just across the border of an organization which has been fighting its armed forces for the past 22 years.

Deep in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, PKK commander Saydo Hussein Afshin said let them try it.

"No power or country can get us out of the Qandil," he said against a stunning backdrop of snow-capped peaks in the nearly inaccessible region along the Iranian border.

"Twenty times the Turks have attacked us and they were never victorious, instead we were the victor."

Around him, dozens of guerrilla fighters armed with assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and light machine guns, worked on preparing the camp for winter by gathering firewood and insulating their simple stone huts clinging to the mountain side.

The PKK are in control of a small pocket of territory in Iraq's Qandil mountains comprising around 50 villages where they have both military and civilian operations.

The group has been fighting a guerrilla war against the Turkish army since 1984 that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians caught between insurgent operations and harsh military reprisals.

Its guerrillas found sanctuary in the late 1980s and 1990s with Kurdish fellow rebels fighting Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and made the region their principal rear-base after Syria gave in to Turkish pressure to cut links in 1998.

In 2000, PKK fighters fought months-long battles with their Iraqi Kurdish counterparts as they carved out the Qandil enclave they hold to this day.

Afshin said they are dug in deeply in their mountain fastness and cannot be dislodged.

"For the past 10 years we have made many preparations and we feel quite safe here," he said.

Turkey has repeatedly threatened to intervene in northern Iraq militarily if the PKK are not expelled -- something they did with comparative frequency before the US-led invasion of 2003.

Under Turkish pressure, Iraq ordered the closure in September of offices of the PKK-linked party Kurdish Democratic Solution.

The party's offices in Arbil -- bastion of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of regional president Massud Barzani -- have been closed but those in Sulaimaniyah -- stronghold of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani -- remain open.

The order for the offices' closure came just days before the PKK declared yet another unilateral ceasefire in its war with the Turkish armed forces.

PKK commanders say the ceasefire holds to this day, even though they continue to come under Turkish attack.

Maliki told his Turkish counterpart that Iraq would not host any force that posed a threat to its neighbour.

"We are not letting them conduct harmful activities," he said.