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ANKARA, July 22 (AFP) - 11h33 - Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused a
political party in a Scandinavian country of
financially supporting groups linked to Kurdish
rebels fighting the Ankara government, a Turkish
newspaper reported Friday.
In remarks to reporters accompanying him on a trip
to Mongolia, Erdogan accused countries he did not
name of "harboring" militants of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), considered a terror group by
the United States and the European Union, many of
whom are in exile in Europe.
"We see that many countries are harboring them and
providing them with financial support," the daily
Yeni Safak, which is close to Erdogan's government,
quoted the prime minister as saying.
"For instance, a political party in a Scandinavian
country is supporting associates of the terrorist
organization very openly, without hiding it," he
said.
"I have raised the issue with the prime minister of
that country as well."
Yani Safak said it learned this was a reference to
Norway, which Erdogan visited in April.
Suspected PKK sympathizers pelted Erdogan and his
entourage with eggs during the visit, sparking anger
in Ankara that the Norwegian hosts had failed to
protect the Turkish delegation.
The PKK, which in June 2004 called off a five-year
unilateral truce it had called in its 15-year war
with Ankara, has stepped up violence in Turkey's
mainly Kurdish southeast over the past few months,
prompting the government to consider stricter
measures against the group.
The Kurdish conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives
since 1984, when the PKK took up arms for Kurdish
self-rule in the southeast.
AFP
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