BONN Germany AP Germany should lift its ban on the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK a Greens politician said Tuesday arguing that it has increased tensions between Germany's Turkish and Kurdish residents. Angela Beers urged the new government to use the opportunity created by the arrest in Rome of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan to push for a political solution to the Kurdish issue in Turkey. PKK guerrillas have been fighting for a homeland in Turkey since 1981. Germany's 1993 ban has hindered any political progress by giving Turkey a justification for its actions the Kurdish population which has in turn fueling tensions both in Turkey and in Germany Beers said. About 400000 Kurds are among the 2 million Turks living here. Germany banned the party in 1993 after attacks on Turkish consulates and businesses in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Beers and lawmaker Ulla Jelpke of the ex-communist Party of Democratic Socialists are backing an initiative by the Kurdistan Information Center in Cologne which has collected 10000 signatures to lift the PKK ban. Ocalan was arrested on a German warrant however Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has refused to seek his extradition citing fears that a trial in Germany would lead to unrest. cb-aet APW19981201.0476.txt.body.html APW19981201.1108.txt.body.html