Articles About Terrorist Activities

Hurriyet

Recently I have been asked the same question on a number of occasions. People ask me why I did not criticize Massoud Barzani, the leader of regional administration in northern Iraq, who I am reminded, I had targeted harshly after the “Daglica attack”.

I also encounter the same question in the messages sent by our readers.

Yes, I wrote very harsh columns directly targeting Barzani in those days.

I even proposed Turkish jets fly low level operations over the city of Erbil in northern Iraq.

I still stand behind my words.

So, why I don’t write in the same harsh tone now?

Because some important developments have happened in the time that has elapsed since then.

I believe that both Barzani and Iraqi President Talabani have both perceived just how “serious” and problematic the issue is for Turkey.

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Hurriyet

We recalled the recent mandate debates in parliament when we heard that the Turkish government, who draws red lines at certain times, sent Turkey’s Iraqi envoy Mehmet Ozcelik to hold talks with Massoud Barzani, the leader of regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq.

It seems that the show of the Turkish government that said it would only recognize the central Iraqi government as a counterpart ends here.

As you know, the one-year extension of the current mandate, which expires on October 17, authorizing the Turkish army to launch cross-border operations into northern Iraq was approved last week.

We decided to summarize the parliamentary mandate debates done since they were not reflected to the public opinion as they should have been.

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Hurriyet

A Turkish court on Monday charged and jailed pending trial five people in connection with a terror attack carried out by the PKK on a police bus in the country’s southeast that claimed five lives

Three suspected members of the outlawed PKK, which carried out last week’s attack, were charged with membership in an illegal organization and carrying out armed attacks on its behalf.

The two remaining suspects were charged with aiding and abetting.  

Police are still questioning a sixth suspect and also looking for the alleged mastermind behind the attack in southeastern province of Diyarbakir.

Two other people were released without charges after being questioned by police.

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Hurriyet

Two people were detained in an eastern province of Turkey under suspicion of having connection with a foiled suicide attack in Istanbul, Dogan News Agency reported on Sunday.

The two, detained in the eastern province of Van, are claimed to have provided a woman suicide attacker with explosives and send her to Istanbul for carrying out the attack, the agency said. 

Turkish authorities foiled Saturday a probable suicide attack by a suspected PKK terrorist in Istanbul on as the military stepped up bombing raids on PKK hideouts in northern Iraq.            

Police arrested a woman in her 30s who they said had been faking pregnancy and was carrying 20 kilograms of explosives as well as several detonators.

The amount of material the suspect was carrying suggested she was preparing an attack on a scale as “murderous” as the twin bombings in Istanbul in July that killed 17 people, provincial governor Muammer Guler told reporters.

Guler said police had established the woman belonged to the “separatist terrorist organization”, a reference to the PKK.

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Hurriyet

The terror organization, PKK, claimed responsibility Sunday for a machine-gun attack on a police bus in southeastern Turkey last week that claimed five lives.

Wednesday’s attack in southeastern province of Diyarbakir was a “successful action” by the PKK terrorists, AFP quoted a statement posted on the terrorist organization’s web site as saying. 

The police bus came under fire just as parliament in Ankara extended by a year the government’s mandate to order cross-border military action against PKK hideouts in neighboring northern Iraq.

The police have detained nine people in connection with the incident, among them three alleged PKK terrorists believed to have taken part in the attack. Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

Members of an Iranian religious militia killed four Kurdish guerrillas in a clash this week close to the Iraqi border, the official IRNA news agency said on Saturday.

The fighting between the insurgents and village members of the Basij militia took place in Kurdistan province, in a part of Iran where security forces and rebels have clashed in the past.

“These people were killed in a clash with Basijis … on Tuesday night,” IRNA said, without giving further details. The volunteer militia is estimated to have 12 million members across the Islamic Republic.

Iranian forces often clash with guerrillas from the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which took up arms in 1984 to fight for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.

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Hurriyet

Turkish warplanes bombed the PKK targets in northern Iraq overnight, the latest in a series of raids after the bloody attack on a border outpost on Oct 3, the army said Saturday.

The statement said 31 terrorists positions were successfully hit in the strike, and were then targeted with artillery fire.

The jets returned safely to their bases, it said, adding only positions belonged to the terror organization were targeted. Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

Turkey is considering to invite the leader of the regional administration in northern Iraq to discuss the possible measure that can be taken in fight against the terror organization, PKK.

NTV said Ankara plans to convey its demands from the regional administration in northern Iraq in its fight against PKK directly to Nechirvan Barzani. 

Such a move would signal an important policy shift in Turkey’s approach to northern Iraq administration. Turkey has long blamed the administration for supporting the PKK and refused to hold contacts.

Turkey’s decision came after 17 soldiers killed in a PKK attack in Oct 3. Turkey had intensified its campaign to crackdown the terror organization and the parliament had extended the mandate given to military to carry out cross border operations.   

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Hurriyet

I was one of the journalists who talked to Emre Taner, undersecretary of National Intelligence Agency (MIT), after he was appointed.

I had learnt interesting things in that conversation.

Taner said he had visited Imrali prison during his previous posts and met Abdullah Ocalan.

This was new information not just for me but for everybody as well.

I wrote this information three days after and the Turkish public learnt about the first contact with Ocalan other than those made by the soldiers and the prosecutors.

The leader of the terror organization told Taner: “Where have you been, I have been waiting for you for a long time.”

So that he was also expecting this contact.

It seems that some other high level contacts were also made with Ocalan.

I want to bring this issue to agenda since they have very interesting points.

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Hurriyet

Three of four terrorists who conducted Wednesday’s attack on a police shuttle bus in Diyarbakir have been arrested on Thursday, the state-run Anatolian Agency reported.

The suspects were taken to the provincial department of security for questioning, the agency said.

Police continue operations to capture another suspect, who is believed to be responsible for planning the bloody attack, it added.

All the suspects are believed to be members of the terrorist organization PKK, and police say some of them came in from the group’s camps in neighboring northern Iraq specifically for the attack.

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