Kurdish refugees say Turkey denied them return visas

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A group of Kurdish refugees said on Tuesday Turkey has denied them entry visas they needed to return to the country under government reforms aimed at expanding Kurdish rights.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has pledged to expand Kurdish rights as Ankara looks to end a 25-year-old conflict between the state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrilla group.

But at the weekend Erdogan said his government wants to halt the return of Kurdish refugees after a group of separatist militants returning from Iraq received a festive welcome.

In Brussels, 15 members of the Kurdish Peace and Democratic Solution Group said they also wanted to return, but were denied necessary travel documents.

The Turkish consulate in Brussels was not immediately available for comment.

"The government's present attitude is blocking the way for the peaceful and democratic solution of the Kurdish issue," Ismet Cem, leader of the group, told a new conference.

"The ruling AK party government is claiming that we created a crisis of confidence," Cem said. "On the contrary, the government and state forces are responsible for causing a crisis of confidence by disturbing, provoking and sabotaging the process."

Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party has launched an initiative that is expected to give greater freedom to the 12 million-strong Kurdish minority in Turkey's southeast.

The reforms are important for advancing Turkey's application for membership of the European Union, and responds to demands that Ankara meet the bloc's human rights criteria.