Articles About Terrorist Activities

A member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, who surrendered at the Habur border gate in October was detained Monday at Van’s airport in relation to an earlier speech.

Nurettin Turgut was held at Ferin Melen Airport in the southeastern district of Van for a period of time before being transferred to the police department. Police said a search warrant had been issued for Turgut due to a speech he delivered in the Doğubayazıt district of Ağrı.

Turgut is the second member of the October group to be detained by police. Gülbahar Çiçekçi was en route to Ankara with another returnee, Şerif Gençdal, when she was stopped by officials checking her identification in Diyarbakır on Sunday.

Çiçekçi was taken to Diyarbakır Police Department’s anti-terror division pending a Monday court appearance in the province. Like Turgut, police had also issued a warrant for Çiçekçi because of a speech she made in Doğubayazıt.

Thirty-four people from the U.N. refugee camp at Mahkmour and the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq entered Turkey and surrendered at its Habur border gate on Oct. 19. Some returnees were detained after their surrender but were released shortly thereafter.

The outlawed PKK has been fighting the Turkish military in the country’s Southeast since the 1980s in a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=two-pkk-returnees-held-over-speech-2010-01-11