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Turkish pilots accused of assisting PKK
The Turkish Armed Forces is looking to see whether two of its ranking servicemen sought to protect the anti-Ankara militants, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Domestic newspaper Bugun on Thursday said that the suspects, Lt. Firat C and Lt. Col. Selim Selcuk C, both pilots, could have tried to prevent attacks by military surveillance aircraft on the gunmen. The PKK, which took up arms against Ankara in 1984 in a bid to establish an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey, is responsible for hundreds of deaths and considered a terrorist organization by much of the international community. According to Bugun daily, in October 2007, the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) intercepted a phone conversation in which Firat told Selcuk, "Our men (PKK members) gave many casualties. Either crash Herons or change their coordinates," referring to the drones. Selcuk responded by saying, "We will deal with it." Following the MIT report, Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug ordered military prosecutors to look into the allegations. In June, the militants called off a unilateral ceasefire only to resume their armed assaults, with their spokesman Ahmed Denis warning that "we will take our operations to all Turkish cities." PKK militants launch their operations against Turkey from Iraqi Kurdistan's Qandil Mountains, where Israel and Israeli firms operate. The International Strategic Research Organization, a Turkish think tank, warned last month that the Israeli military's retirees as well as members of the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, had been sighted providing training to PKK gunmen in Iraqi Kurdistan. Speaking to Press TV from Istanbul on Saturday, political analyst Yavuz Selim Kurt said Israel fosters the destabilizing acts of terror against Turkey as a means of silencing Ankara's opposition to the policies adopted by Tel Aviv. According to Kurt, the militants intensified their operations five hours before the May 31 attack by Israeli commandos on the Gaza-bound aid convoy, Freedom Flotilla, which left nine Turkish activists dead. "Israel is trying to destabilize Turkey and (is) backing this terrorist organization... Everywhere, they are supporting this terrorist organization in order to destabilize the country and to force them not to attack Israel's policies," Kurt said.
Posted by: Fred 2010-07-19 |
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