Articles About Terrorist Activities

AFP

General Raymond Odierno, chief of American forces in Iraq, has visited Turkey to discuss plans to cooperate in fighting rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the US military said on Saturday.

Odierno met Turkish General Hasan Igsiz, deputy chief of the Turkish General Staff, on Friday, the statement said. Their talks focused on continued assistance by US forces to Turkey in Ankara’s efforts to battle the PKK.

“The PKK is a terrorist organisation and has committed heinous crimes against the Turkish people,” the statement quoted Odierno as saying.

“I’m committed to work with the government of Turkey and the government of Iraq to prevent further atrocities.”

A series of PKK attacks over the past month killed dozens of Turkish soldiers and civilians, sparking public outcry and pledges from Turkish leaders to deal with the group, it said.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

General Raymond Odierno, chief of American forces in Iraq, has visited Turkey to discuss plans to cooperate in fighting the terror organization, PKK, the US military said on Saturday.

Odierno met General Hasan Igsiz, deputy chief of the Turkish General Staff, to discuss PKK terrorists launching attacks into Turkey from northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

The meeting on Friday “centered on U.S. forces’ ongoing assistance to Turkey” in its effort to defeat PKK, the military said in a statement.

Their talks focused on continued assistance by U.S. forces to Turkey in Ankara’s efforts to battle the PKK, it added.

“The PKK is a terrorist organization and has committed heinous crimes against the Turkish people,” the statement quoted Odierno as saying.

“I’m committed to work with the government of Turkey and the government of Iraq to prevent further atrocities.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Agence France Presse

Finnish police said Wednesday they had arrested five men on suspicion of trying to set fire to the Turkish Embassy in Helsinki.

“We have now arrested five people connected with this case. This afternoon we detained the fifth person,” Helsinki police chief inspector Markku Stenberg told Agence France-Presse.

The door of the embassy building was set ablaze with flammable liquid in the early hours of Tuesday. The fire was quickly detected by a police patrol and extinguished, but one embassy worker was hospitalized with injuries.

Stenberg said those arrested were aged 16 to 20 and were all of Turkish origin. At least some were Kurds.

“We have continued interrogations today. It has become clearer how it all happened. But I will not comment possible motives,” he said.

Read the rest of this entry »

Turkish Daily News

It has been established that attacks a two days ago on a Turkish market and travel agency in a building owned by the Religious Affairs Directorate’s Turkish Islamic Union, or DITIB, were perpetrated by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. According to a statement released yesterday by the Hamburg police, a Web site close to the organization claimed the attacks were by PKK supporters whose identities were not yet known.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

Iraqi Shi’ites have echoed Turkey’s concerns on the presence bases of the terrorist organization, PKK, in northern Iraq and expressed their political support in the fight against the terrorist group, sources told Turkish Daily News (TDN).

Ammar al-Hakim, the deputy leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, met Thursday high-level officials in Turkey.

Turkey demanded more cooperation from al-Hakim to combat the PKK and to stop them from using northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks into the country’s southeast.

Turkey, provided with intelligence by the United States, has stepped up its campaign to crackdown on the PKK both inside Turkey and in northern Iraq, after the terror organization increased its attacks on Turkish soldiers, as well as civilians.

“We are ready to help Turkey but we don’t have tanks or artillery or any military power to challenge the PKK. Iraqi’s are also victims of terror,” an Iraqi Shi’ite official told the TDN.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

Twenty-five PKK terrorists were killed in Turkish air strikes targeting PKK hideouts in northern Iraq last week, an army spokesman said Friday. Seventeen others were killed in security operations inside Turkey, he added.

Intelligence reports suggest that several PKK terrorists were also injured when Turkish warplanes raided the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq on Oct. 17, General Metin Gurak, the head of the general staffs press department, told a news conference in Ankara. 

Gurak said 17 PKK terrorists were killed inside the country in clashes with Turkish security forces that took place last week.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bruce Fein, Ali Koknar

Democracy is not a suicide pact. No nation is required to be too weak to defend its own democratic dispensation. Accordingly, the Republic of Turkey should not be faulted for its pending initiative through chief prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya to ban the Democratic Society Party, or DTP, before the Constitutional Court featuring all the trappings of due process. According to Yalcinkaya, the DTP is a virtual appendage of the Maoist terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has been responsible for the deaths of a grim 15,000 Turkish civilians and security force members. Most of the PKK’s civilian victims are other Kurds who repudiate their assassinations. The DTP openly endorses the PKK’s secessionist aims and violent methods.

Banning political parties that aim to sabotage the constitutional order is not anti-democratic. Democracies ranging from Germany to Israel have proscribed parties for celebrating racism or violence. As the U.S. Supreme Court explained in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), the whole purpose of a Constitution is to place certain fundamental values beyond the reach of popularity contests.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan threw his backing behind the military in the fight against terror and urged everybody, including the media, to do the same.

Erdogan’s remarks came a day after the army chief, General Ilker Basbug, slammed some media organs for publishing alleged intelligence reports claiming the military were informed of the PKK attack, which killed 17 soldiers, ahead of time.  

“All of us should stand on the same side against terror. This is not a matter of choice, but a humanitarian, ethical and legal necessity. Nobody has or should be given the right to encourage terror,” he said at a meeting in Ankara.

He said that in order to succeed in the fight against terror everybody should stand against it with joint determination.

“Of course media is free. They have the right to criticize… The free media also has some ethic rules to obey,” he added.

On Wednesday, Turkey’s army chief delivered his harshest statement since taking office slamming recent media coverage of the Oct. 3 PKK attack. He urged everybody to “stand in the correct spot”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

Four Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with PKK terrorists in southeastern Turkey, the army said on Thursday. Another soldier was killed when a military helicopter crashed.

Four Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with PKK terrorists in the southeastern province of Hakkari, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement posted on its website.  

Another soldier was killed and 15 others lightly wounded, including a brigade general, when a helicopter bringing reinforcements to the combat zone crashed due to a technical fault, the statement said. 

The PKK, however, claimed it brought down the Turkish helicopter, the AP reported.

Five PKK terrorists were killed in clashes with Turkish security forces in two other southeastern provinces of Turkey, it added. Four terrorists were killed in Hakkari province and the other in the province of Sirnak. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

Turkey’s army chief used a very rare harsh rhetoric as he criticized some media organs over the recent publication of news stories suggesting the PKK attack on Oct. 3 was known to the military ahead of the incident.

“Those, who despite everything show this attack of the terror organization as a success story, share responsibility for the bloodshed. I want everybody to understand this very well,” Gen. Ilker Basbug told at a televised press conference held in the western province of Balikesir.

He said the military has filed legal action against those who leaked and used the classified reports on the PKK attack of Oct. 3 that killed 17 soldiers.

“The Turkish Armed Forces have full self-confidence and it is stronger, more determined and resolute today than ever. The systematic attacks that had increased in recent days would do nothing but increase strength, determination and will of the Turkish Armed Forces,” he said.

A controversial Turkish daily, Taraf, had published footage recorded and sent by unmanned aircraft to army headquarters showing the PKK terrorists preparing for the attack on a military post in the southeastern region of Aktutun.

Read the rest of this entry »