Turkey Breakfast
But according to Turkey, the PKK is a terrorist organization? Let's take a look at three sources, Globalsecurity.org, Federation of American Scientists (fas.org) and the Council on Foreign Relations
Globalsecurity.org:
Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan [PKK]
Established in 1974 as a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group primarily composed of Turkish Kurds, by the late 1990s the PKK had moved beyond rural-based insurgent activities to include urban terrorism. The PKK sought to set up an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey, where there is a predominantly Kurdish population.
Kurdistan Workers' Party
People's Defense ForceGeography, politics and history have conspired to render 30 million Kurds the largest stateless people in the Middle East. The Government of Turkey has long denied the Kurdish population, located largely in the southeast, basic political, cultural, and linguistic rights.
Since 1984 the separatist PKK waged a violent terrorist insurgency in southeast Turkey, directed against both security forces and civilians, almost all of them Kurds, whom the PKK accuses of cooperating with the State. The government of Turkey in turn waged an intense campaign to suppress PKK terrorism, targeting active PKK units as well as persons they believe support or sympathize with the PKK. In the process, both government forces and PKK terrorists committed human rights abuses against each other and noncombatants. According to the Government, from 1984 through November 1997, 26,532 PKK members, 5,185 security force members, and 5,209 civilians lost their lives in the fighting.
The PKK committed numerous abuses against civilians in northern Iraq throughout 1997. For example, on August 4, five persons were reportedly kidnaped from the village of Gunda Jour by a PKK band. Iraqi Kurds reported that on October 23, a PKK unit killed 14 civilians (10 of them children) and wounded 9 others in attacks on the villages of Korka, Chema, Dizo, and Selki. On December 13, seven Assyrian civilians reportedly were ambushed and killed near the village of Mangeesh. Many villagers in Dohuk and Irbil provinces, particularly those from isolated areas, were reported to have abandoned their homes and temporarily relocated to cities and lager towns to escape PKK attacks.
Abdullah OCALAN, was captured in Kenya in February 1999. The PKK observed a unilateral cease-fire since September 1999, although there have been occasional clashes between Turkish military units and some of the 4,000-5,000 armed PKK militants, most of whom currently are encamped in northern Iraq.
NOT GOOD GUYS
- Kurds Feel ‘deserted And Furious’ At U.s.
And this is all YOU, Mr. Obama.All they wanted was material.THINGS.STUFF.Armed with light weapons and shooting from inside homes and behind mud walls in territory around the city, Kurdish forces have slowed the militants, whose rapid advance through villages...
- 3 Kurdish Women Found Dead At Kurdish Center In Paris
In France, a mysterious murder of 3 Kurdish women was discovered in Paris: Three Kurdish women, including one of the founders of a militant group battling Turkish troops since 1984, were "executed" at a Kurdish center in Paris, the interior minister said...
- Turkey To Iran ....let's Help Each Other Get The Kurds
If there ARE any natural allies for the USA (and Israel) it’s the Kurds, victims of Iran, Turkey, Iraq for HUNDREDS OF YEARS of oppression, repression, and pogroms.Israel, are you LISTENING? Erdogan and his islamist people are NOT untouchable or unreachable...
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Turkey Has 140,000 Soldiers Posted On The Iraqi Border And, we're considering pulling out? Say the words, "The blood is on our hands," and swish it around in your mouth a bit, and savor it. Screw all the illiberal "Liberals" who want to walk out...
- Turkey: "no Incursion Into Iraq"
As epaminondas has posted before, Turkish Army has entered Iraq -although later they have denied it- allegedly to pursue PKK terrorists. The problem that this poses to US -and to West in general- is that both Turkish and Kurds are important US allies....