Turkey says the decision of a Kurdish rebel group to change its name and shift its strategy amounts to "no change at all." 

Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem says Ankara doesn't believe the former Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has changed its nature or essence. Mr. Cem made the comment at a news conference in Luxembourg. 

The group's armed struggle for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey began in 1984, and has cost more than 35,000 lives. 

In Ankara, Turkey's Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu also dismisses the name change, saying the rebels remain terrorists responsible for years of deadly violence. 

Tuesday, the group said it has reformed itself as the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK) and said it would no longer seek to break away from Turkey. Speaking in Brussels, spokesman Riza Erdogan said KADEK would instead struggle peacefully for greater rights for ethnic Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. 

Mr. Erdogan says a party congress elected Abdullah Ocalan chairman of the new movement. Ocalan, the P-K-K leader, remains on death row in a Turkish prison. Turkey convicted him of treason after his capture by Turkish commandoes in Kenya in 1999. Since his arrest, Ocalan has appealed to end the armed rebellion. Fighting has largely subsided since the Ocalan appeal. 

The PKK is banned in Turkey and several European countries. It has been labeled a terrorist organization by Ankara and Washington. 

Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.

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