Speaking to The Guardian daily from a hideout in the Qandil mountains on the Iraq-Iran border, Cemil Bayik said that while his units were not seeking a fight, the Turkish army faced "a political and military disaster" if it crosses into Iraq as part of an offensive against the PKK.

A Turkish incursion into Iraq could become "a quagmire for them (the Turkish army) and create space for Iran to interfere in Iraq also," Bayik told the newspaper.

Bayik also accused the Turkish army's chief of staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, of using the PKK's presence in northern Iraq as a reason to "annihilate Kurdishness."

"General Buyukanit wants everyone to be a happy Turk. And those who don't agree he brands as a traitor. He wants first to smash the Kurdish regional government in Iraq," Bayik said.

"He wants second to ruin any chances of a referendum being held on Kirkuk, and the PKK issue is really only third on his list of priorities."

Bayik also contested the classification of the PKK as a terrorist organisation, insisting the group condemned attacks on civilians, and were "freedom fighters."

"We are not looking for independence, we are not even looking for federalism like the Iraqi Kurds have. The solution lies in granting the Kurds of Turkey language and cultural rights and freedom of speech," he said.

He added that he would work to better convince the international community of his group's peaceful commitment to resolving the Kurdish question in Turkey.

More than 37,000 people have been killed since the PKK, classified as a terror organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.