Articles About Terrorist Activities

Hurriyet

Terrorism has been the biggest threat for global peace and security in the age of globalization, Turkey’s Chief of Turkish General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told on Tuesday at a security conference.

 
It has been impossible to counter terrorism on a national level with national policies, Buyukanit told at the “Silk Road – 2008 General/Admiral Seminar” held in the southern province of Antalya in Turkey.   

“International cooperation has become the sine qua non for the fight against terrorism,” Buyukanit was quoted by the state-run Anatolian Agency as telling commanders from several countries.  

“I think we all agree that terrorism is the most serious sickness of the 21st century although we could not make a common definition of it,” he said, adding that none of the forms of terrorism could be considered legitimate, regardless of the ideology they advocate.

“More than that, even tendencies close to legitimizing terrorism are unacceptable,” Buyukanit also said.

He said efforts in diplomacy, intelligence, economy, finance, information and law were also important as much as military methods in the fight against terrorism, since terrorist organizations were acting like international crime organizations with their criminal acts such as, illicit drug and human trafficking, money laundering, racketeering, bootlegging and kidnapping for ransom.

“For instance, the terrorist organization PKK/Kongra-Gel is responsible for the 80 percent of the heroin smuggled into Europe, extortion in several European countries, and even running guns to the terrorist organization, Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. These are all meaningful in terms of showing the activities of terrorist organizations at the international level,” he said.

U.S. SUPPORT

The United States has promoted major support to countries that struggle with terrorism, designating the PKK be subject to sanctions, which prevents U.S. companies and citizens from engaging in trade and transactions with them, under a U.S. anti-drug trafficking law, he said.

“Undoubtedly it is not enough to just add such crime organizations to terror lists. Such lists, which don’t have a response in practice, are not useful against the struggle with terrorism,” Buyukanit added.

Buyukanit also said that another security threat emerged in this century was energy security, reminding that oil and natural gas were the most traded natural resources in the world today.

“Energy security, economic security and national security are inseparable notions,” he said. “Countries holding energy resources should not use their advantage as an element of oppression against other countries,” the Anatolian Agency quoted Buyukanit as saying.

Buyukanit also said Turkey is located between major energy supply and demand hubs, adding the implementation of ongoing pipeline projects such as, South Stream, Caspian Line, White Stream and Nabucco, would depend on mutual solidarity and trust among all involved countries.

Source: www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/9385036.asp?scr=1

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