Paris three Kurdish women murder suspect faces trial as Kurdish tensions resurface

August 14, 2015 By administrator

AFP Photo

PARIS – Reuters

A Turkish man suspected of murdering three Kurdish women in Paris in 2013 is to face trial amid renewed violence in Turkey’s southeast.

According to a French judicial source, the charge against the main suspect in the case, 33-year-old Ömer Güney, will be “assassination in connection with a terrorist organization,” as requested by an investigating magistrate in July.

Judicial sources have said he is thought to have acted under instructions from people in Turkey, and that those people may have had connections to the Turkish intelligence services.

Turkish officials have denied the allegations, suggesting instead that the murders were related to internal disputes in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Sakine Cansız, 55, a founding member of the PKK; Fidan Doğan, 32, a spokeswoman for the organization in France and Europe; and a trainee named Leyla Şaylemez, 25, were killed in Paris on Jan. 9, 2013.

The women were shot as cease-fire talks to end 29 years of conflict between the PKK and Turkey were starting.

Turkey also opened an investigation into the incident. Güney came to Ankara on Aug. 22, 2012, and applied for a new passport at the Ankara Police Department a day later, according to the initial investigation. He renewed his passport on Aug. 24, 2012.

Turkey, PKK Mine explosion kills one soldier in Turkey’s east

August 13, 2015 By administrator

DHA photo

BİNGÖL – Doğan News Agency

One soldier was killed on Aug. 13 after stepping on a mine laid by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the eastern province of Bingöl.

Clashes erupted in Bingöl’s Genç district between security forces and PKK during which the soldier stepped on the mine. He was rushed to the Bingöl State Hospital but ultimately succumbed to his injuries.

The clashes between the security forces and the PKK are reportedly continuing in the area.

Turkey, One soldier killed, five wounded in new armed conflict in Turkey’s south-east

August 12, 2015 By administrator

One soldier was killed and five members of security forces were wounded on Aug. 12 in another outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, Hurriyet Daily News reports, citing the General Staff.
PKK militants staged an armed attack on a gendarmerie post in the Sur district at 13.10 pm with rocket propelled grenades and long-barreled weapons.
One specialized sergeant was killed and four soldiers, along with a temporary village guard, were wounded. The condition of two of the wounded personnel, meanwhile, was reported as critical.
Clashes between security forces and militants that lasted 20 minutes erupted after the attack, according to the statement.
An air-supported operation, with the participation of reinforcements, has also started in order push back PKK militants.

US Fox News: Turkey’s PKK strikes outrage US military in Iraq

August 11, 2015 By administrator

(Photo: AP)

After granting the US permission to use Turkish air bases for strikes against radical terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria, Turkish air forces began heavily pounding bases of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, causing ripples of dismay and outrage among senior officials within the US military, the US-based Fox News Channel has said.

According to a Fox News report on Tuesday, Turkey launched its air strikes against the PKK “with only 10 minutes notice to their American partners.”

“The U.S. had barely enough warning to make sure its own forces were out of the way, according to a military source with knowledge of the tension Turkey’s attack caused in the Combined Air and Space Operations Center [CAOC], the allied headquarters in the air war against ISIS [ISIL],” the online version of the Fox report said.

“A Turkish officer came into the CAOC, and announced that the strike would begin in 10 minutes and he needed all allied jets flying above Iraq to move south of Mosul immediately,” Fox reported a military source as saying, who then described events that took place “in the center, in a secret location in the Middle East.” “We were outraged,” Fox quoted the source as saying.

In addition to targeting forces engaged in the fight against ISIL, US officials believed the Turkish military’s sudden move raised the risk of friendly fire casualties, the report added.

“We had U.S. Special Forces not far from where the Turks were bombing, training Kurdish Peshmerga fighters,” the source said. “We had no idea who the Turkish fighters were, their call signs, what frequencies they were using, their altitude or what they were squawking [to identify the jets on radar].”

When the Turkish officer returned the next day to inform his international partners of another strike, US military officials made their objections clear. The Turkish liaison officer was sent away, but not before a back-and-forth in which US leaders demanded the specific flight plans of the attacking Turkish warplanes and the Turkish officer sought the locations of the US trainers.

The coalition air force officers in the ops center refused to share the sensitive information.

“No way we were giving that up,” said the military source, according to Fox News. “If one of our guys got hit, the Turks would blame us. We gave the Turks large grids to avoid bombing. We could not risk having U.S. forces hit by Turkish bombs.”

Critics of the new agreement between the US and Turkey say the deal gives Ankara cover to carry out strike missions against Kurdish fighters in Iraq and even Syria, where Kurds have won hard-fought gains against ISIL. While the Kurdish fighters have been remarkably effective fighting the terrorist army, Turkey remains their nemesis and fears the recent expansion of Kurdish control along the border could provide Kurds more incentive to form their own country in the future.

Turkey began a campaign of air strikes on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, the PKK and ISIL fighters in Syria in July, in what acting Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu dubbed a “synchronized fight against terrorism.”

The Turkish military began bombing terrorist PKK targets in northern Iraq late last month, the first such strikes since a settlement process with the Kurds was launched in 2012, in response to the killing of two policemen in southeastern Turkey by the youth wing of the PKK.

The PKK is held as a terrorist organization by the US government and many EU nations.

“The PKK’s Syrian affiliate [the People’s Protection Unit (YPG)] has been the leading ground force against ISIS in Syria, and a close ally of the U.S. military,” the report said, adding “In Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, separate from the PKK and YPG, have been praised by many U.S. lawmakers for their success in fighting ISIS [ISIL].”

Turkey Protecting ISIL to Limit Kurdistan Workers’ Party – PKK Leader

August 11, 2015 By administrator

According Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader, Turkey is protecting the Islamic State, in order to limit the PKK in the country.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Turkey is protecting the Islamic State (ISIL), in order to limit the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the country, PKK leader Cemil Bayik said Monday.
“The Turkish claim they are fighting Islamic State… but in fact they are fighting the PKK… They are doing it to limit the PKK’s fight against ISIL. Turkey is protecting ISIL,” Bayik told BBC.
According to Bayik, Turkish authorities are behind massacres allegedly committed by ISIL, and Istanbul’s aim is to “stop the Kurdish advance against [ISIL], thus advancing [their] aim of Turkishness in Turkey.”
Turkey has been mired in violence in recent weeks, launching a campaign against both ISIL and the PKK. Ankara recently allowed a US-led international coalition against ISIL the use of several air bases in the country.
On July 20, a suicide bombing took place in the Turkish city of Suruc on border with Syria, killing more than 30 people, most of them Kurds. The attack was reportedly committed by ISIL.
Shortly following the incident, Kurdish militia from the PKK killed two policemen in Turkey, justifying the murders by claiming the officers backed ISIL.

PKK leader Bayik: Turkey is protecting IS by attacking Kurds

August 9, 2015 By administrator

Cemil Bayik, is considered the most important figure of the PKK at the moment

The man leading the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has accused Turkey of trying to protect the Islamic State group by attacking Kurdish fighters.
Cemil Bayik told the BBC he believed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted IS to succeed to prevent Kurdish gains.
Kurdish fighters – among them the PKK – have secured significant victories against IS militants in Syria and Iraq.
But Turkey, like a number of Western countries, considers the PKK a terrorist organisation.
A ceasefire in the long-running conflict with the group appeared to disintegrate in July, when Turkey began bombing PKK camps in northern Iraq, at the same time as launching air strikes on IS militants.
Observers say PKK fighters have been on the receiving end of far more attacks than IS.
But Turkish officials deny that the campaign against IS group is a cover to prevent Kurdish gains. On Wednesday, Turkey said it was planning a “comprehensive battle” against IS.
‘Stop Kurdish advance’
“The Turkish claim they are fighting Islamic State… but in fact they are fighting the PKK,” Cemil Bayik told BBC’s Jiyar Gol.
“They are doing it to limit the PKK’s fight against IS. Turkey is protecting IS.
“[President] Erdogan is behind IS massacres. His aim is to stop the Kurdish advance against them, thus advancing his aim of Turkishness in Turkey.”

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK began its armed struggle against the Turkish government in 1984.
In the 1990s, the organisation dropped its demand for a Kurdish state and instead called for more autonomy for the Kurds.
In March 2013, its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan called a ceasefire.
But violence has resumed in recent weeks after a suicide bombing blamed on IS killed 32 people in the predominantly Kurdish town of Suruc.
The PKK’s military wing killed two Turkish police officers, claiming they had collaborated with IS in the bombing.
Turkey says the group has been behind a number of other attacks.
When, on 24 July, Turkey officially launched its first air strikes against IS, it also attacked Kurdish positions in northern Iraq.
Negotiations ‘only choice’
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Bayik said negotiations were the “only choice” for an end to the Kurdish conflict.
He said the PKK would stop fighting if Turkey ended its military operation, and called for international monitors to oversee a ceasefire.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has previously said that strikes against the PKK would continue until the group surrenders.
The country’s fight with the PKK is complicating the US-led war on the Islamic State group, for which the US has relied heavily on Syrian Kurdish fighters affiliated with Turkey’s Kurdish rebels.

Source: BBC

Europe ‘rejects’ (PKK) extradition of Turkey suspects

August 9, 2015 By administrator

File photo of PKK fighters standing in formation

European countries have rejected handing over nearly 650 outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) members to Turkey despite the red notice.

According to Turkish security sources, Germany has refused to send nearly 300 fighters of groups like the PKK, DHKP-C and Hezbollah while Denmark has supported Roj TV, PKK’s Kurdish-language channel broadcasts from Denmark.

Denmark has also not sent some back “under the guise of that they did not attend in active terrorist deeds in Turkey” and carried out activities against Turkey, the sources claim.

Similarly, Greece is also accused of not extraditing a DHKP-C suspect accused of attacking Turkey’s Justice and Development (AK) Party HQ and Justice Ministry.

Over the last two weeks, the PKK has carried out attacks against Turkish security forces, killing police officers and soldiers in the eastern region, as Ankara continues a security campaign that has so far resulted in the detention of over 1,300 people.

According to the data, at least 11 civilians, including an Iranian national were also killed in such attacks, while 101 people, including three Iranians were injured during the same period between July 7 and August 7.

The recent developments appeared to end a delicate ceasefire that brought relative calm to Turkey over the last two years after Ankara launched the ‘solution process’ in 2013 to end a conflict spanning three decades that has resulted in the deaths of 40,000 people.

Meanwhile, Turkish police have launched nationwide operations against other outlawed organisations, including as well as the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H), linked to the PKK.

Iran asks citizens to avoid travel overland to Turkey

August 9, 2015 By administrator

Photo: Vatan

Iran has asked its citizens to avoid traveling by land to Turkey after an attack in eastern Turkey left one Iranian dead.

“Based on recent movements and insecurity in Turkey’s east, the foreign ministry advises our citizens travelling to Turkey to avoid land routes until further notice and to use air routes,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, according to French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The PKK announced last month that it was stepping up attacks, saying Turkish forces were violating a 2013 cease-fire. Turkey began an air campaign against PKK camps in northern Iraq on July 24.

On Saturday, a Turkish police officer was killed in a PKK attack in Mardin. On Friday evening, militants fired a rocket at an armored car in the town of Cizre, killing a police officer and wounding another. The wounded officer later died on Saturday.

TURKEY claim 390 Kurdish PKK rebels killed in two weeks of raids

August 9, 2015 By administrator

PKK Fighters

About 390 fighters of the Kurdish guerrilla Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed and 400 others injured in two weeks of raids of Turkish airstrike against rebel bases in northern Iraq, said Sunday the Turkish government agency Anatolia.
The agency, which it was not possible to confirm the information, assured that at least four leaders of the movement and approximately 30 women rebels were killed in the (…)