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ANKARA, May 2 (AFP) - A radical Kurdish group
said Monday it was responsible for a weekend bomb
explosion in a Turkish seaside resort that killed a
policeman, and warned tourists to stay away from the
country, a pro-Kurdish news agency reported.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, said by Turkish
police to be an offshoot of the separatist Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK), made the claim, according to
the Internet site of the German-based Mesopotamia
agency which has links to the
One police officer was killed and four others were
injured Saturday when a parcel bomb exploded in the
hands of a bomb disposal expert in Kusadasi, a
seaside resort town on the Aegean Sea in western
Turkey popular with British tourists.
"If the nationalist policy and the pressures aimed
at the Kurdish people continue, our actions will
also continue," the statement said, dictated to the
agency by a caller.
The group first came to public notice in August 2004
when attacks on two hotels in Istanbul killed two
and injured 20, mostly tourists.
The agency said the caller had urged foreigners not
to visit Turkey. Tourism is the country's chief
source of revenue, producing almost 16 billion
dollars (12.3 billion euros) in 2004 from some 17.5
million holiday-makers.
The PKK waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in
south-eastern Turkey between 1984 and 1999. The
conflict claimed more than 36,000 lives and was the
source of accusations of gross human rights
violations on both sides.
The PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire in 1999
after its leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured and
tried in Turkey, but it called off the truce last
year, raising tensions in the region.
AFP
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