Neither the PKK nor its affiliates carried out any terrorist attacks in the EU in 2012, noted the report titled, “EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report.” However, the group continued to conduct activities such as “fund raising, propaganda, logistical support and the recruitment and training of potential fighters,” in the EU.

“In March, Italian police carried out several raids and arrested five PKK members, on suspicion of extortion and injuring Turkish immigrants,” it said.

In December, Dutch police raided a secret PKK meeting held in a holiday park in Ellemeet, the report said.

Two pro-PKK broadcasters, Roj TV and Mesopotamia Broadcast, were also accused by a court in Denmark of promoting a terrorist organization and were each sentenced to 40 day fines of 8,700 euros, according to the report.

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/pkk-still-active-in-europe-report.aspx?pageID=238&nID=45666&NewsCatID=351

“During this visit I would also like to mention the negotiations between the Turkish authorities and Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the PKK, an organization which is still included in the EU list of terrorist groups,” said Jean-Claude Mignon, the President of PACE, in a written statement yesterday, condemning all forms of terrorism. His visit will come after Turkish politicians slammed the use of the wording “PKK activists” in the explanatory memorandum prepared by the PACE rapporteur on Turkey Josette Durrieu. Meanwhile, elaborating on the PACE latest assessment on Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the issue had nothing to do with removing the PKK from the EU’s list of terrorist organizations. k HDN

Source:http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/pkk-still-on-terrorist-list-the-council-of-europe-confirms.aspx?pageID=238&nID=45589&NewsCatID=338

Duran Kalkan, an executive committee member of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the alleged urban wing of the PKK, said there was no problem with the withdrawal from Turkish soil at the moment, but added that it could not be completed soon.“There is no serious problem on our side. But of course the conditions [for a withdrawal] must emerge and become practical. The withdrawal is not a process of one hour or one day,” Kalkan told Ruşen Çakır from daily Vatan in Iraq’s border town with Turkey.

Kalkan also said the PKK would lay down arms in this process, upon a question. “Of course, there won’t be [arms]. It is risky, there is no guarantee of the results when you start a struggle, but I believe the conditions are in favor of us.”

‘Retreat will take time’

The completion of the withdrawal process will take time due to the geographic conditions and climate, said Delal Amed, a senior militant leader in the PKK. “We will leave the same way we entered. We will provide the security measures [during the retreat]; we do not have any expectation on this issue. We have many forces; it will take time,” Amed said in the same interview.

Kalkan also said the expectations of a legal guarantee for the withdrawal have been largely met. He said that the content of Öcalan’s last letter sent to Kandil was satisfactory. Senior militant leader Murat Karayılan is expected to hold a press conference today in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq, where the PKK bases are located, daily Hürriyet has reported. Karayılan is expected to call for withdrawal.

He also said it was not easy for the PKK militants to retreat, as “they have fought for a cause for a long time.” “We said that more messages should come from İmralı [the island where the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, is serving a life sentence]. Now these things are being realized.”

“We know that no one will give us something, we will struggle by changing the methods and we believe that we will be successful at that,” said Kalkan, adding that this was their inference from Öcalan’s message. Meanwhile, the Turkish military’s soldiers, tanks, ammunition located in patrols on the border with Iraq and Şırnak were moved to western posts yesterday, Doğan News Agency reported. Tanks and other military vehicles were seen being carried by convoys of trucks.

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/pkk-to-withdraw-lay-down-arms-soon.aspx?pageID=238&nID=45510&NewsCatID=338

“The Turkish Armed Forces’ fight with the terrorist, as stated in laws and in the government’s directive, is continuing,” the TSK wrote, without naming “the terrorist” and explicitly citing the name of the PKK.

On March 21 jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan called for a cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to leave Turkey as part of a government-led peace process aimed at ending the three-decade-old conflict between security forces and the PKK. Hours later, although welcoming the call, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sounded a note of caution, saying Turkey wanted to see “to what extent it is implemented” by the militants.Erdoğan said Turkish security forces would cease operations against the militants as soon as Öcalan’s call was implemented.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by a large majority of the international community including the European Union and the United States in addition to Turkey. Turkish civilian and military officials particularly refrain from using the word “cease-fire” in relation to the PKK, since they assume that its use would legitimize the PKK by accepting it as a counterpart.

CHP downplays TSK statement

When the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, was asked about the TSK’s statement, he said, “In accordance with the law, the army will perform its duty. This is not a big deal.”

“The mandate already belongs to the government. The General Command of the Gendarmerie is adherent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it functions like the Police Department. In cases of illegal activity in rural areas, the General Command of the Gendarmerie performs its duty. In addition to that, there are the Land Forces, Naval Forces and Air Force, which are adherent to the General Staff. These perform their duties with the government’s instructions and according to the tasks that the law assigns to them. It is necessary to differentiate the duties that the gendarmerie and the army perform. It is necessary that we look at the event this way. If in a certain place, there really have been large-scale events, the governorate that is the representative of the state and the government invites the army to duty in order to alleviate the events. The army cannot proceed without an invitation. These are the well-known legal definitions,” Kılıçdaroğlu answered in Parliament, when reminded of the news reports regarding the authorization of the governorates on the PKK’s withdrawal.

In recent weeks, news reports have suggested that the governorates would be authorized to monitor TSK activity during the PKK’s planned withdrawal, since the militants are concerned about being attacked by the military forces on their way out.

As of April 18 Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said an already-existing regulation arranging coordination of TSK’s duties and the governorates’ authorities was being detailed regarding the PKK’s planned withdrawal.

Bozdağ noted that all responsibility for a province rests in the hands of the governorates, according to the Law of Provincial Administration’s Article No. 11.

“There is already a regulation authorizing the governorate to ask the TSK for help, should it require in a case of ending a security or terror problem with its security forces. This regulation has been in effect since 1996. This is the kind of endeavor that is being done. The endeavor is only an elaboration of the regulation in the law, governing the procedures and principles of this.”

Meanwhile, when asked whether he would attend the reception to be held for the anniversary of April 23, 1923, the opening day of the Turkish Parliament during the War of Independence, now celebrated as National Sovereignty and Children’s Day, Kılıçdaroğlu confirmed his attendance unless an unexpected problem arose.

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/no-step-back-on-terror-fight-military-vows.aspx?pageID=238&nID=45440&NewsCatID=338

The letter reached deputies of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) first, two of whom, Sırrı Süreyya Önder and party co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, are currently taking the letter to Kandil, according to CNN Türk.

Öcalan has not given clear messages about the withdrawal of the PKK from Turkish territory, but has written a new letter on the peace process, Demirtaş had previously said, according to Fırat news agency, known to have close links to the PKK.

Earlier reports quoted Öcalan as saying that the PKK militants could withdraw from Turkey without “legislative insurance and arms,” in his meeting with BDP deputies during their fourth visit to İmralı island, late on April 3. BDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, BDP group deputy head Pervin Buldan and BDP Istanbul deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder had visited Öcalan for the fourth time at the İmrali island prison where he is serving a sentence of life imprisonment.

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/pkk-leaders-letter-on-way-to-kandil.aspx?pageID=238&nID=44322&NewsCatID=338

The other 700 militants could be released after judicial process, since they did not commit a crime apart from being members of the PKK, sources said according to a daily Milliyet columnist and Ankara representative.

The same sources also backed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks on how PKK militants will leave Turkish borders without arms.

This will be a “test of sincerity,” they said, adding that the withdrawal must be without arms and without militant uniforms.

The provinces where PKK militants are present in Turkey are the southeastern provinces of Hakkari, Şırnak and Bingöl, Diyarbakır’s northern countryside and Tunceli’s countryside, sources said.

The outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), which recently increased its attacks, is also active in Tunceli, according to sources.

Militants of the outlawed PKK who withdraw from Turkey will have to lay down their arms before crossing the border, in order to prevent further confrontation, Erdoğan had said earlier. “No one will respond to people without arms,” Erdoğan said during a live interview with private broadcaster CNNTürk March 29.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/walkout-by-800-pkk-militants-enough-sources-say.aspx?pageID=238&nID=44102&NewsCatID=341

Is it indeed possible for Turkey to legislate for a special law temporarily providing some sort of legitimacy to withdrawing terrorists and ordering security forces, prosecutors not to take any action against them? This is one key demand of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) gang and its political and non-political “civilian” extensions.

Providing legitimacy to the separatist gang and its members has been on the agenda since the day a “parliamentary” delegation first visited the chieftain serving an enforced life-term on İmralı. Why? One fundamental reason is an effort to make best use of the situation. If the government wants and there is a massive popular support for the initiative then, why shouldn’t the government legislate for a law legitimizing the gang or at least de-criminalizing it? This is an awkward thinking. The aim is to make Turkey accept that all that was lived through since the August 1984 start of PKK separatist campaign was a “war” between Turkey and the “Kurds” and now the time has come to talk about the terms of the truce between these two warring parties.

Yes, with the “generous contributions” of some of our big and small allies, regional governments, the gang waged some sort of a low-intensity war mixed with all kinds of brutality and barbarism against Turkey and the people of this country without any discrimination. The “baby killer” term used for the chieftain was because of the few-months-old babies being mercilessly butchered by his men at his orders; not an exaggeration at all. Can anyone remember for one second the July 1993 massacre of 33 civilians, including kids and pregnant women at Başbağlar village? The chieftain, at court testimony, accepted the responsibility of the massacre claiming it was done outside of his knowledge.

That reminded me of a conversation with a retired western intelligence official a while ago on the subject of the chieftain. Though for understandable reasons he was unable to go into details, my source, describing the chieftain and commenting on the latest initiative of the Turkish government said, “He [the chieftain] really is little more than a sociopath without a conscience. He will say and do whatever is to his advantage and [as in the past] change in a flash. The number of people he has killed and ordered killed is still staggering. Still I do hope the initiative of the government works, but hope is not a policy and this, I really feel, will come to no good, at best.”

Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek was also against a special legislation de-criminalizing the gang, “for some time, until it withdraws from Turkey.” Obviously, this is no joke. Meeting with the gang chieftain; getting his verbal messages and passing on those messages to other people might be something worthy of investigation by prosecutors. How could terrorists wandering around or withdrawing to another country and refusing to lay down their arms, be given some sort of “legal immunity”? Or, can the government with a written order officially instruct the Turkish military to watch but not act on withdrawing terrorists passing in front of military outposts?

This is an initiative aimed at bringing an end to the PKK, not to the Turkish state; no one should confuse it. The prime minister may generously issue a verbal pledge and tell the terrorists if they stop violence and withdraw they will not be fired upon, unlike what happened in previous such cases. That’s the maximum the government might undertake…

When the time comes, even amnesty should perhaps be considered, but demanding legitimization of terrorism cannot even be a fools’ day joke…

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/terrorism-cannot-be-legitimized.aspx?pageID=449&nID=43998&NewsCatID=425

Y. O. has been residing in Spain for some time now and was picked up from Zaventem Airport in Brussels, according to Spanish officials. He was reportedly on his way to Tunisia. An arrest warrant for Y.O. had been issued by the Spanish National Court.

Spanish and Belgian police reportedly worked together to locate Y.O., who was the target of a manhunt linked to the Cappadocia Operations taking place in Spain and France that ended with police forces detaining over 20 suspects for alleged links to the PKK.

Y.O. is allegedly in charge of several different PKK foundations in different European countries, Anatolia news agency reported.

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/alleged-pkk-member-detained-in-brussels-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=43668&NewsCatID=338

The jailed leader of the PKK in Turkey, Abdullah Öcalan, declared a cease-fire in a message conveyed during Nevruz festivities in Diyarbakır on March 21, to hundreds of thousands people. He also called on armed militants to withdraw from Turkish soil, indicating that these moves would mark a milestone for “a new era” and herald the building of a “new Turkey.”

‘Öcalan’s decision is our decision’

In the video Karayılan praises Öcalan’s call as “historic” and describes it as paving the way of a “new start.”

Echoing some of Öcalan’s statements, Karayılan said, “Öcalan’s decision is the decision of all of us. We accept and agree with this decision. We consider its content and scope historic, just and very important. It’s the beginning of a new process and era.”

He also stressed the importance of the “togetherness of the peoples” and a process of freedom by means of democratic reforms. “We consider this perspective described by Öcalan as the new step to achieve freedom and democracy. Everyone should see it that way,” he said.

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/leader-of-pkk-in-northern-iraq-declares-cease-fire.aspx?pageID=238&nID=43509&NewsCatID=338

Eight public officers captured by the PKK were handed over to a group including Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) lawmakers and non-governmental organization representatives in northern Iraq. “I want to assure you that [the release of hostages] is not a result of bargaining. We consider this a positive gesture and attitude in terms of the [ongoing peace process]. We are glad of that,” said Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay on March 12, defining the PKK’s move as a show of good intentions.

Turkish President Abdullah Gül told reporters during a visit to Sweden yesterday that it was “very pleasing to have our citizens back in Turkey after being far from the country for a long period without hearing any news from them.”

The prime minister extended his best wishes through phone calls to the eight hostages following their release.

Interior Minister Muammer Güler also commented on the release today, saying the transfer was made wihout a hitch.

“We received them without any mishaps occurring,” Güler said, adding that the peace process was not a matter of fulfilling the conditions or expectations of any group.

The eight hostages are district governor candidate Kenan Erenoğlu, Sgts. Zihni Koç and Kemal Ekinci, non-commissioned officer Abdullah Söpçeler, police officer Nadir Özgen, and soldiers Ramazan Başaran, Hadi Gizli and Reşat Çeçan.

After a health check, the hostages were sent to the airport along with their families and allowed home, Interior Minister Muammer Güler said. Some of the hostages left the Habur border gate by helicopter along with their families late today.

The hostages included soldiers, police officers and one local deputy administrator.

‘Wait for me at home’

Army Sergeant Söpçeler, who was kept at 640 days after being abducted from a remote road in Turkey’s southeastern Diyarbakır province, telephoned his wife after first hugging his father.
“Wait for me at home as always, I am coming,” Söpçeler told his wife.

Erenoğlu said he now feels at ease since he did the right thing.

“We are happy, we are at peace now. , I feel that everything is how it was supposed to be. I have both the feeling of doing eveyrthing right and that something is missing inside me which is due to what my family has been through,” Eroğlu said.

BDP Hakkari Deputy Adil Kurt told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday that they were pleased to mediate the release of the eight hostages. “We have seen that everyone is happy and hopeful with the ongoing process. The PKK officials clearly said during the handover that ‘We have no condition for a handover. We are releasing you upon the call of our leader Öcalan,’” he said. “Turkey must understand [the importance of] this step. This process should result in peace.”

The handover took place in the Amediye district of northern Iraq, 30 kilometers from the Turkish border. Members of Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) responsible for the security of the group came from Turkey for the handover.

The hostages were captured by PKK militants between 2011 and 2012 from a number of different locations in Turkey.

The release of the hostages came after the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, called on the PKK to “treat their prisoners well” and suggested an eventual release.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) spokesperson Haluk Koç has expressed his satisfaction with the release of the eight hostages.

“We are pleased that the abducted public servants were released after being kept by the PKK for years under tough conditions. We are very happy for their families,” Koç said yesterday at a press conference.

EU welcomes release of hostages

The European Union has welcomed the release of the eight public servants in a statement. The EU gives full support to the process that aims to resolve the Kurdish issue, the Spokeperson for EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle has said.

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/pkk-releases-8-hostages-in-solid-step-in-peace-process.aspx?pageID=238&nID=42878&NewsCatID=338