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Italy says dismantling Kurdish-PKK
recruitment network
26.2.2010
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February 26, 2010
VENICE,
Italy — An Italian police
operation Friday targeted a group suspected of
recruiting Kurdish fighters for the Turkey's
militant separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK
group, news reports said. Authorities in Venice
issued 11 arrest warrants, but it was not
immediately clear how many people were detained.
The arrest warrants, being carried out in Venice and
other northern towns, were issued against 10 Turkish
citizens and one Italian, who have been charged with
links to acts of international terrorism,www.ekurd.netpolice
said in a statement.
The investigation, carried out in Italy and France,
had discovered a "recruitment district" tasked with
finding resources and people to fight against
Turkish interests along the country's border with
Iraq, police said. |
An Italian police operation
Friday targeted a group suspected of recruiting
Kurdish fighters for the Turkey's militant
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK group |
The operation was being carried out in cooperation
with French and German authorities, according to the
reports.
The PKK, formed in the late 1970s with the aim of
creating an independent Kurdistan, has been engaged
in an armed struggle against Turkey that has claimed
thousands of lives.
Since 1984 PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey
(Turkey-Kurdistan) which has claimed around 45,000
lives of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas. A large Turkey's Kurdish community
openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
The PKK is considered a
'terrorist' organization by Ankara, U.S., the PKK
continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite
court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
Last August, the government announced plans to expand
Kurdish freedoms in a bid to erode popular support
for the PKK and end the insurgency.
Although the drive faltered amid a ban on the
country's main Kurdish DTP party, street protests and PKK
violence, Ankara has vowed to push ahead with the
reforms.
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author or news agency,
DPA | Reuters | Agencies
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