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PKK says we will not attack Belgium 11.3.2010
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March
11, 2010
Qandil mountains, Turkey-Iraqi Kurdistan, —
PKK and KCK spokesman Roj Welat said in a telephone
interview from Qandil mountains that the Turkey
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is not planning
attacks against Belgium.
Belgian media reported that the PKK was planning
attacks in revenge for the recent Belgian police
operations against Kurdish organizations. Six of the
18 arrested Kurds are still in prison.
The Belgian press agency BNP Paribas received an
anonymous fax message, threatening with attacks
between 8-14 March against the Belgian police, the
Fortis bank group and Turkish institutions in
Belgium. The Belgian police took precautions to
protect possible targets.
According to Luc Verheyden, vice-director of the
OCAD (Organ for Coordination and Analysis of
Threats) the threat letter could likely come from a
frustrated Kurd or the PKK. The Belgian police
didn’t take the threat serious and later the OCAD
concluded that the threat was implausible. |
Murat Karayilan (C) is the acting commander of the
Turkey Kurdistan Workers' Party (Partiya Karkeren
Kurdistan - PKK) and chairman of the executive
council of the Kurdish Democratic Confederation (Koma
Civaken Kurdistan - KCK). |
The PKK spokesman Roj Welat said the arrests are a
provocation of the Kurds and a project of NATO,
Turkey and America to cut off the voice of the
Kurds. Welat claims Europe,www.ekurd.netAmerica
and Turkey do not want to solve the Kurdish issue by
peaceful means. "All talks are meant to destroy the
political representatives of the Kurdish people."
Roj Welat said that if Kurds are attacked, they
might defend themselves, but he emphasized that that
the strategy of the PKK is to use peaceful and
democratic means. "Turkey might try to provoke the
Kurds."
The Turkish government welcomed the Belgian police
operations.
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.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency,
rudaw net | Agencies
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