The Makhmur refugee camp in northern Iraq is no tent city - it's a small, dusty village, with little stores, barbershops and a large meeting-house. Children kick a football around in the street and shopkeepers pass the time of day with people walking by. All that distinguishes it from the other villages in the area is the tall perimeter fence that stops residents leaving without permission.

By Hermione Gee

Established in 1998, the camp now houses around 12,000 Turkish refugees. They fled South-Eastern Turkey during fighting between the Turkish military and the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party - or PKK - in the early 1990s.

Garden of the Martyrs
At the centre of the camp lies the so-called Garden of the Martyrs, in remembrance of those killed fighting for the PKK. Relatives can come and sit in the flower garden or walk through the small orchard. They can also visit the museum, where hundreds of photographs of the fallen men, women and children are on display.

Many are pictured against the starburst backdrop of the Kurdish flag, dressed in military fatigues, carrying guns. In one picture, a girl of about 14 stares into the camera, crouched down, leaning on her rifle. Many pictures are stacked on the floor. As the PKK continues its fight against Turkey and more people are killed, the pictures have outgrown the available wall space and are waiting to be moved to a larger room.

Founded by Abdullah Öcalan in the 1970s, the militant PKK fought for an independent Kurdish state, which would unite the Kurdish areas of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Under international pressure the PKK later scaled down its ambitions and now says it merely wants to secure the cultural and political rights of Turkey's Kurdish population.

No more violence?
But the PKK still uses violence as a means to achieve its ends, and until the movement lays down its arms for good, Turkey says it will keep up its attacks on PKK bases in the mountains of Turkey and Iraq. According to Ankara the camp provides a safe haven for PKK militia who launch border raids into Turkey from their bases in Northern Iraq.

A search of the Makhmur camp in 2007 led by US and Iraqi forces turned up a cache of mortar rounds, but didn't find guns or other weapons. The camp's leadership says that they no longer support the use of violence by the PKK. "We have learned from our mistakes," one man said.

The older women at the camp agree. They belong to the Mothers of Peace - an organization of Kurdish women who've lost children to the war between Turkey and the PKK.

Gathered in a small, colourfully decorated living room, surrounded by photographs of former PKK leader Öcalan, the women say they are tired of bloodshed.

"We have seen our children martyred. We want neither the Turkish mother nor the Kurdish mother to cry or have their hearts wounded. Our solution is peace."

Suggestions
But days after our visit to Makhmur, nine Turkish soldiers were killed by a suspected PKK roadside bomb in South-Eastern Turkey and two would-be suicide-bombers were arrested on the campus of Bilkent university in Ankara. In retaliation, Turkish fighter jets targeted PKK base-camps in Northern Iraq.

"We ask for peace from the Turkish government and they answer by killing us. No government accepts us."

And that's the problem. Unwilling or unable to return to Turkey while the fighting continues, and unable to settle in Iraq, the Makhmur refugees are living in limbo.

"We are trying to find someone to take them," says a UNHCR spokesperson for the camp, "but we don't know what to do. If anyone has any suggestions, we'd like to hear them."