Articles About Terrorist Activities

Hurriyet

Jailed Kurdish terrorist leader Abdullah Öcalan is seeking compensation from Greece for having failed to prevent his capture by Turkish intelligence nearly a decade ago, a justice ministry source said Thursday.

Acting for Öcalan, Greek lawyer Yiannis Rahiotis filed a compensation claim for 20,100 euros ($25,500), alleging that the Greek state betrayed him after offering assurances of safety, the source said.

On the run from Turkish agents, Öcalan hid in Athens for two days in January 1999 before being helped by Greek intelligence to flee to Kenya, where he was arrested by Turkish agents with the aid of U.S. intelligence and condemned to death after a trial in Turkey.

The sentence was later commuted to life in prison as Ankara abolished capital punishment as part of reforms sought by the European Union, which Turkey is in talks to join.

Diplomatic disaster
Three Greek ministers were sacked over the affair at the time and 13 people including Öcalan were later put on trial over his illegal entry, which proved a diplomatic disaster for Greece.

Öcalan is the head of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara and much of the international community.

The PKK took up arms for self-rule in Turkey’s southeastern region 24 years ago, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 44,000 lives.

Source:  arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=10518035

Hurriyet

Turkish military said late on Friday its air forces attacked PKK positions in northern Iraq. The army said in a statement posted on its Web site the jets bombed the targets of terror organization on the Iraq’s Qandil mountains, in which PKK leadership is hiding and the terrorists are training.

This year Turkey has launched several air force attacks and one major ground operation against PKK bases across the border with Iraq.

Earlier on Friday, the state-run Anatolian Agency reported that Iranian forces were also shelling the Qandil mountains alongside with the bombing of Turkish warjets.

Turkey and Iran have been long fighting against the terrorist movements operated by both the PKK and its Iranian wing PEJAK.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, including the EU and the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

Jailed leader of the terror organization PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, is seeking compensation from Greece for having failed to prevent his capture by Turkish intelligence nearly a decade ago, a Greek justice source said on Thursday.

Acting for Ocalan, Greek lawyer Yiannis Rahiotis has filed a compensation claim of 20,100 euros (25,500 dollars), alleging that the Greek state betrayed him after offering assurances of safety, the source told AFP.

The leader of the terror organization PKK is currently serving life sentence in a prison in Turkey.

On the run from Turkish agents, Ocalan hid in Athens for two days in January 1999 before being helped by Greek intelligence to flee to Kenya, where he was arrested by Turkish agents with the aid of U.S. intelligence.

Three Greek ministers were sacked over the affair at the time and 13 people including Ocalan were later put on trial over his illegal entry, which proved a diplomatic disaster for Greece.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, including the EU and the United States.
Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

Turkish army said it neutralized 17 terrorists, including three dead, during the operations held in last week. It also said that it will organize a trip for journalists to the military posts in the southeastern regions.

The army said three terrorists were killed in the operations held last week in the southeastern regions of the country to crackdown the terror organization, PKK. Five terrorists were surrounded, the Second Commander of the army, General Hasan Igsiz, told at the weekly press conference.

Igsiz said the army will organize a trip to the southeastern regions for journalists to introduce the activities of the military posts in the border.
Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

Turkish army said it neutralized 17 terrorists, including three dead, during the operations held in last week. It also said that it will organize a trip for journalists to the military posts in the southeastern regions.

The army said three terrorists were killed in the operations held last week in the southeastern regions of the country to crackdown the terror organization, PKK. Five terrorists were surrounded, the Second Commander of the army, General Hasan Igsiz, told at the weekly press conference.

Igsiz said the army will organize a trip to the southeastern regions for journalists to introduce the activities of the military posts in the border. Read the rest of this entry »

Mehmet Ali Birand, Hurriyet

In general we all would like to immediately get rid of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. We expect those whose opinion we trust to prescribe a formula. I too receive from time to time questions from my readers: They say, “What should we do? How can we solve this problem?” There is not only one formula to solve this problem. I mixed my own experience with the formula of experts whose views I trust, the military and politicians, and came up with a integrated formula. Let us start with some assessments:

1. The presence of the Kurdish problem brought forth the PKK, for the organization after a while grew because of wrong formulas prescribed by Turkey, and became a monster that dominates the agenda.

2. The PKK poses a security problem and we need to stress the security part in order to fight the PKK. But if we look only at the security part we will not get far. Read the rest of this entry »

Hurriyet

The European Security and Defense Assembly condemned Wednesday the terrorist organization PKK and called on the European Council and the Council of the Western European Union to be more careful about the terrorist organization’s activities in member countries.

During Wednesday’s meeting, the assembly unanimously approved “the terrorist activities along the Turkish-Iraqi border” report prepared by British parliamentarian Robert Walter, the Anatolian Agency reported.

The report said the EU should firmly implement policies and rules regarding the fight against terrorism.

The report also said members of the EU and the Western European Union should display the necessary sensitivity regarding the activities carried out by the terrorist organization on their territories such as money laundering, drug trafficking, smuggling of explosives and arms, human trafficking and propaganda via TV broadcasts. Read the rest of this entry »