PKK started out as a terrorist organization and recently due to its failure in the logistic and military fields is trying to maneuver itself towards something resembling a political movement.

It's leader Abdullah Ocalan has been recently arrested while trying to illegally enter Italy with a forged passport. Now we await the outcome of the extradition requests. Supporters of the organization have as a last resort turned to feeding the media various stories on how PKK is a political entity and not a terror organization. It is true that PKK attacks have weakened in recent times but this is not due to PKK voluntary slow down but to the success of Turkish security forces.

With less news articles of PKK violence world public opinion has forgotten what kind of a bloody organization PKK really is.

I have compiled the following to show PKK for what it truly stands, so its numerous crimes are not forgotten. I have done this through answering in detail 2 allegations put forward by PKK and its sympathizers. Please read and re-use this material to educate the people around you who in this ever faster revolving world until recently had many other things to catch up on. Help them understand, help them remember what the issue is really about. Pass this around and let the people know the truth.

Sincerely,

A. Omer Koker.

ALLEGATION:

Kurds are not represented in the Turkish government and various public offices. They are not given adequate education or allowed financial freedom for enterprising!

IN REALITY:

Kurds are not only represented in government but have held many 'top spots' such as Parliamentarian, State Minister, Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament even the Presidency. There are numerous multi-millionaire (US$) Kurdish businessmen/artists. They own and operate anything from fast food chains to construction companies. There is NO law regulating what language people speak in Turkey, a stroll through a construction site of even government projects will disprove those who lie otherwise. The only law that gets mis interpreted is the one which is against terrorist activities.

There are numerous schools which teach in foreign languages, all of which are fully allowed to operate within the same rules & regulations that govern Turkish language schools. Furthermore, Abdullah Ocalan the political science drop-out leader of the PKK was attending university on a Turkish state scholarship which was revoked only after a warrant for his arrest was released much later then his drop out! There have been un-official problems in the past which were mostly knee-jerk reactions to PKK terrorism. The PKK under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan made its business to keep the education and prosperity level of the region as low as possible. Uneducated and poor villagers were easier believers of PKK propoganda/lies, where as a better educated population would make PKK recruitment and operations impossible. The $500million or so spent on the fighting could as easily have been spent on better education, creating jobs and rebuilding lives, but this does not suit PKK as they can survive only in a chaotic environment. According to Turkish Education Ministry spokesman Murat Eskin, 4-5,000 of the 20,000 teachers posted to southeastern Turkey have not reported to their jobs because of fear of the PKK.

"Hikmet Cetin, deputy prime minister until a few weeks ago, is Kurdish although he has never drawn attention to the fact. Former President Turgut Ozal was reputed to be half-Kurdish. About 100 deputies in the 450-member parliament are Kurdish."
- SF Chronicle Foreign Service September 24,1995

"They said Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels stopped teacher Musa Erdogan at a roadblock in the province of Batman, took him from his motorbike and shot him dead with automatic weapons. Erdogan taught at a village school nearby.
- DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) Nov 7, 1998

"Fourteen school teachers have been murdered in the past month by the PKK, a Kurdish guerrilla movement engaged in a ten-year conflict with the Turkish state, according to Human Rights Watch/Helsinki.
...
''The murder of these four teachers continues a long-standing practice of PKK attacks against the educational system in southeastern Turkey, a clear violation of humanitarian law," according to Jeri Laber, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch/Helsinki."
- New York October 13, 1994, commenting on IHF 1994 Annual Report

"In 1993, the PKK murdered thirty-four teachers."
-Turkish Human Rights Foundation 1993 Annual Report.

ALLEGATION:

PKK is a liberation movement to free the oppressed Kurdish people of the region. They aim to unite the Kurds dispersed between Turkey, Iran, Iraq & Syria to form a new country, Kurdistan.

IN REALITY:

PKK is a terrorist organization started by donations from Libya and nurtured in the Syrian controlled Beka Valley together with Hizballah and Hammas. PKK has been abusing illiterate peasants of the region to the good of a handful of its leaders whom were unable to form a democratic front due to lack of interest. Far from uniting people of Kurdish descent it has killed anyone it can get its hands on without getting caught. It has killed Turkish , Kurdish as well as number of other lesser known local ethnic groups and foreign nationals. It has launched terror campaigns on anyone who has not agreed with their point of view. Close to 500million US$ is being spent by the Turkish government to combat the PKK and its violence which could have been instead spent on development projects in the region. Having slaughtered many of its own ethnicity, the PKK compares no different then any other terror organization.

It has been proven that PKK makes use of drug-trafficking, robbery, extortion, arson, blackmailing and money laundering and various other crimes to support their organization and its arms supply. PKK members have been arrested for serious crimes in the following countries; Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, Venezuela and recently Syria. A German newspaper (Kölnische Rundschau), dated February 2, 1995 reported that 143 kg. of heroin and 25 PKK members were arrested in a drug trafficking web reaching the "Medellin" of South America! According to German TV program (Vox TV 12 February 1993) the estimated figure PKK earns from the narcotics trade is more than 56 million DM.

In 1993 more than 50 PKK members were arrested by the Essen Police of Germany. The Federal Criminal Department in Wiesbaden found out that the PKK was organizing the drug trafficking in Germany and the narcotics trade in Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfurt and Essen was under the control of the PKK.
- NRZ (German Daily) 30 March 1993

Ralf Brottscheller, the Senator of Interior of Bremen, accused the PKK of extortion and organized narcotics smuggling.
- Focus (German Magazine) 18 September 1995

"Hungarian customs said on Tuesday that Turkey's recent campaign against Kurdish rebels has significantly slowed Middle Eastern heroin exports to Europe.

The amount of heroin seized in Hungary, the leading transit country between the Middle East and Western Europe in terms of seizures, slid measurably in the first half of 1995 against the same period last year, customs said in a statement.

``The cause of the drop was the Turkish army's campaign against Kurdish territories, during which many drug labs were destroyed,'' it said. "
- BUDAPEST (Reuter) 15 Aug 95

"A top Kurdish leader captured earlier this month claims his guerrilla organization was responsible for the 1986 slaying of Swedish Premier Olof Palme, a Turkish newspaper reported today.

Semdin Sakik, who commanded operations of the Kurdish rebel group PKK inside Turkey as the group's No. 2 leader, was abducted by Turkish troops in northern Iraq.

The Istanbul daily Sabah reported that Sakik testified during his pre-trial interrogation that PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan ordered Palme's assassination because of Sweden's decision to extradite eight PKK rebels.
...
Palme had incurred the wrath of Kurdish militants in the early 1980s when his government branded the PKK a "terrorist organization."
...
Sakik told interrogators that Ocalan also fell at odds with Sweden after his wife left the PKK and fled to Sweden, and the government jailed a PKK guerrilla who killed another former member who had sought asylum there.
...
The PKK allegation was pushed very hard by Stockholm's former police chief, Hans Holmer, who led the first investigation into Palme's death before he was forced to resign."
- ANKARA (AP) 04/28/98 [also on CNN]

"Spokesman James P. Rubin noted that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has designated Ocalan's PKK group as a terrorist organization.

We have asked the Russian government to investigate whether PKK leader Ocalan is in Russia and to take the necessary steps to expel, deport or extradite him immediately. No nation should give sanction to terrorists."
- WASHINGTON (AP) November 5, 1998

"By way of example, the following terrorist groups or front groups acting on their behalf have been and are active in Canada: Hizballah and other Shiite Islamic terrorist organizations; several Sunni Islamic extremist groups, including Hamas, with ties to Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Lebanon and Iran; the Provisional IRA; the Tamil Tigers; the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK); and all of the world's major Sikh terrorist groups."
- Ottawa June 24, 1998 Report on Counter-Terrorism
Canadian Security Intelligence Service by Ward Elcock, Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service

"An alleged leader of the banned Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in Germany went on trial Wednesday on charges of participating in a terrorist organization and attempted arson.
...
He also is charged with fraud for allegedly collecting about DEM5,100 in German welfare while actually living in Paris. Prosecutors say he used the money to support the PKK."
- FRANKFURT (AP) October 21, 1998

After not gathering the support they had hoped for through democratic methods they have in numerous ways tried to avoid & distort free elections in the region by treathining voters as well as candidates from attending. PKK has not only threatened people in Turkey but the region in general.

Anyone that does not support their view seems to be their target, enemy regardless of their ethnicity. PKK has sided with Iraqi Saddam Hussein against other Kurdish groups in Northern Iraq.

PKK has not wasted a single bullet fighting against the Iraqi government which has poisoned and bombed its own Kurdish brethren. Furthermore it has been in cooperation with this very government.

The hundreds of thousands of Kurds who escaped the attacks of the Iraqi government have found safe haven in Turkey!

"That year the PKK attacked many Kurdish villages in the Southeast declaring them as "state collaborators". In 1988 and 1989 the situation was similar. Militants of the PKK, then in its growing period, raided one village after another, killing women and children and explaining these attacks as offensives against village guards. Many hundreds of civilians were killed in this campaign, which frustrated state officials and security forces. More important, it led to a Turkish national reaction to Kurdish demands in general."
-(Herzlia, Israel) Report on PKK International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism

"The militant Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) has called on Kurds to boycott local elections due to be held on March 27 in the south and east of Turkey, newspapers reported Wednesday quoting the Kurd-A information service.

Spokesman Kani Yilmaz said the call was contained in a statement from PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. It follows last week's decision by the Kurdish Democratic Party (DEP) not to take part in the elections. The party, regarded as the legal arm of the PKK, has 17 deputies in Turkey's parliament.

Yilmaz said the boycott would be rigorously monitored and violations met with violence. "Those who ignore our call will be regarded as targets and punished," said Yilmaz."
- ANKARA (DPA) 94-03-02 06:31:00 EST

"Assessing the agreement signed in Washington, Ocalan warned the KDP and the PUK [the Kurdish Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, respectively, which signed the agreement in Washington] administrators against turning this alliance into a front against the PKK as had been the case in 1992."
- BBC Worldwide Monitoring 01/10/98

"On 25/5/97 a convoy of about 1,000 PKK fighters crossed into the area controlled by the Iraqi regime at Singaw to the east of Kirkuk. They were received by Iraqi forces and escorted to Sinjar where they crossed the border into Syria."
-Iraqi National Congress (The Iraqi Main Opposition Group)
Web Site (http://www.inc.org.uk/) 27/5/97

"On July 22, 1998, the Assyrian civilians of Sarsenk were a victim to ANOTHER BARBARIAN ATTACK from their Kurdish neighbors of Kany-Jenarky village, originally from (upper Araden Kurdish village). Kurdish armed troops from Kany-Jenarky village entered Sarsenk and started to attack the Assyrian civilians in their houses by hitting them and verbally abusing them, then by opening fire wounding three Assyrians, one of them 14 years old."
- Youkhanan Khzyran Bet-Dodo, France [Europe]

Even the Syrian's who have been under constant critic for their support of terrorism had enough of the PKK related worries & headache to outlaw and expel them;

"In a report by its political editor, the official Syrian Arab News Agency or SANA, which reflects the government view, said: "The PKK is an illegal and unlicensed party."
- DAMASCUS (AP) October 21, 1998

"After two days of talks in Adana, Turkish and Syrian officials have signed a document banning the Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, and its leader from Syria. The PKK leader will not be allowed to enter Syria..."
- BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 10/21/1998

After Syria, Ocalan had headed for Russia who refused having anything to do with him sent the terrorist leader packing in less then a month guaranteeing he would never come back.

"Ocalan was arrested at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport after flying in from Moscow on a false passport.

Italian newspapers called the arrest a "mystery," implying that police might have been tipped off to his arrival. Corriere della Sera said Russian authorities had alerted Italian police."
- The Washington Post November 15, 1998; Page A47

The level of hatred towards the evil this man has done is so great that even convicted criminals are asking for his return from behind bars. And those people who have gathered in Italy to support him give a good indication of what Italy will be faced with if it lets this terrorist stay. PKK has brought violence and crime to every single country it has entered. Its cease fire declarations were nothing but breathing space for it to rearm & reorganize itself only to be broken by more PKK attacks and bloodshed.

"Turkey blames Sakik for a number of ruthless operations, including the 1993 killing of 33 unarmed soldiers in eastern Turkey. That attack broke a cease-fire agreement."
- (Herzlia, Israel) News Report April 15, 1998

International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism "And Turkish prisoners in Istanbul took an Italian inmate hostage to try to pressure Italy to extradite Ocalan. The Italian, Mauro Calascibetta, was taken hostage Sunday. He is awaiting extradition to Switzerland in connection with an attempted killing.
...
Meanwhile, a group of Turks laid a black wreath at the gate of the Italian Embassy in Ankara today to protest the beating of Turkish journalists in Rome by supporters of Ocalan on Saturday."
- BBC November 15,1998 at 18:03 GMT

The statement, "One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter," does not apply to a person or group that has killed and destroyed a complete region at the loss of its own people! The time and opportunity has come for us to extinguish another one of this worlds MOST violent terror organizations hiding behind the veil of political issues. With Abdullah "APO" Ocalan behind bars the future of the region will be open for all involved parties to work towards a lasting and stable peace. Economic & social improvement is the only solution, killing teachers, burning factories and killing innocent civilians will only create a blood feud to further bury the region...

In light of the material presented here (with much more in archives) I ask of you to see what the PKK truly is and not fall for the latest facade they have put up. Decide for yourself what should be done to the man who built it!

Additional notes:

Turkey has capital punishment (death penalty for certain crimes) but HAS NOT executed a single prisoner (political or otherwise) since 1984. The Turkish parliament is working on a law that will abolish the penalty as we speak. The US state of Texas executed close to 400 people in 1997.

There are so many crimes that PKK has committed which has been documented that I have limited the press clippings to these 2 major allegations. As you read this I am compiling more documents to further prove the evil that PKK is in issues like forced-labor, illegal trafficking of immigrants and money laundering... I would appreciate all additional documents that you may have.

The originator of this post is not in any way affiliated with ANY country governments. Views expressed are mine alone. The various news items clippings are copyright of their mentioned agencies. Certain dates mentioned as 04/05/98 may in fact be 05/04/98 due to the difference between US & European dating syntax. In either case I have not altered any of the dates from the original published one in any way.

A. Omer Koker

omer@insan.net