-Caveat Lector- >From Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iraq http://www.kdp.pp.se/press/18_2_1999press.html KDP Press Release Following The Arrest Of Abdulla Ocalan By Turkey Iraqi Kurdistan Feb. 18, 1999 The Politburo of the KDP is following, with great concern the developing events connected to the arrest of Abdulla Ocalan and its international and regional consequences. It is not our wish to see any Kurd face such a fate. We hope that this development will help to put an end to the violence and blood shed and to bring about a peaceful and political settlement for the Kurdish issue. We also hope for a fare and just trial. This episode re emphasises the point that a political and democratic solution for the Kurdish issue is the only way to establish stability in the Middle East region and bring about prosperity and peaceful coexistence for its nations. KDP Politburo For further Information contact: Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iraq (KDP) PO Box 7725, London SW1V 3ZD, UK Tel : +44-171 931 7764 FAX: +44-171 931 7765 e-mail: &[EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.kdp.pp.se >From National Post Thursday, February 18, 1999 Kurdish rebels use Canada as a 'safe haven' Raising funds, hiding out: Two senior officials arrested here since 1994 Stewart Bell National Post The Kurdish guerrilla organization led by Abdullah Ocalan, whose arrest this week by Turkish commandos sparked riots around the world, has been sending agents to Canada since the early 1990s to raise funds and to hide out, according to an intelligence report obtained by the National Post. The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has been waging a violent campaign for a homeland in Turkey, "now views Canada as a 'safe haven' for PKK members who have overstayed their welcome in other countries," says the Canadian Security Intelligence Service report. "In Canada, the PKK began to form a notable presence in the early 1990s," the report says. "The PKK's development here has followed the pattern seen in Europe in the mid-1980s; the service believes the goal of the PKK in Canada is to gain control of the general Kurdish community for its own financial and strategic purpose." Intelligence officials say the PKK has tried to send senior members of its organization to Canada in the past few years in ''an attempt to vitalize the PKK in Canada." But at least two of the attempts have been thwarted by Canada, which arrested the agents and initiated deportation proceedings against them. Hanan Ahmed Osman, code-named "Helin," arrived in Canada in 1994 using a phony British passport. But she was immediately detained by immigration officials, who found in her possession PKK paraphernalia, including a map detailing NATO military and satellite installations in Turkey. She disappeared before her court appearance, but is believed to have fled Canada to avoid deportation. "She was ordered deported because of her membership in the PKK," an immigration official said yesterday. A warrant has been issued for her arrest. "We continue to investigate," the official said. Another PKK leader, Aynur Saygili, arrived at Mirabel airport near Montreal on a flight from Zurich on May 29, 1996, carrying someone else's passport. When police arrested her at the Kurdish Cultural Centre in Montreal, she gave police a false name before admitting her true identity. CSIS said Ms. Saygili was "operating in Canada on orders from the PKK hierarchy," and described her as intelligent, tough, and "determined to further the PKK cause . . . Saygili will do whatever she considers necessary toward that end." She was deported last August. Several other immigration cases involving alleged PKK members are still in progress, an official said, and the alleged members continue to reside in Canada. The PKK does not have a high profile here, but events this week -- the riot at the Turkish embassy in Ottawa, the occupation of the Greek consulate in Vancouver by protesters who doused themselves in gasoline, and the trashing of a Greek bank in Montreal -- suggest the group has a committed following that is willing to resort to extreme tactics to promote its cause. Ward Elcock, the director of CSIS, said in a submission to the Senate committee on security and intelligence last year the PKK was one of several terrorist groups active in Canada. The PKK is a "Marxist-Leninist insurgent group composed primarily of Turkish Kurds," the U.S. State Department said in its latest annual report on international terrorism. Formed in the '70s, the group became violent in the '80s and has bombed tourist sites and kidnapped foreigners in an attempt to damage the Turkish economy, the U.S. says. In Germany, the PKK is actively engaged in criminal activities, "principally extortion, recruitment, and aggravated assault," the State Department reports. Prosecutors in several European countries have asserted the organization also operates lucrative heroin-smuggling rings. >From Jerusalem Post Thursday, February 18, 1999 2 Adar 5759 Updated Thu., Feb. 18 02:50 Why the Kurds blame Israel News Background by ARIEH O'SULLIVAN (February 18) - The wrath of the Kurds amid persistent accusations that Israel helped Turkey track down Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, whether true or not, is the price Israel has to pay for its blossoming defense alliance with Ankara, experts say. Try as it might, Israel cannot shake loose the impression among the Kurds that it helped lead Turkish commandos in Kenya to their charismatic leader. Ocalan himself said in a recent interview with the London-based Jane's Defense Weekly that he believed the Mossad was tracking his movements on behalf of Turkish intelligence. On October 13, OC Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Malka told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Ocalan had left his Syrian headquarters and had showed up in Russia. Six days later, the Turkish prime minister announced this information, saying a "foreign security service" helped locate Ocalan. He did not name the country. "It was clear from that moment the Kurds were looking at us differently," said Alon Liel, a former top diplomat in Ankara and expert on Turkey. "For months I have warned that the alliance with Turkey has presented Israel with red lines. We have married a bride with a problematic family. I am not against friendly relations with Turkey, but we have to know the problems it causes," said Liel. Four times at his press conference in Tel Aviv yesterday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu denied that Israel helped in the capture of Ocalan. But this is not expected to change the impression among the Kurds that Israel's defense establishment helped track down the PKK leader. A Kurdish rebel leader told Israel Radio yesterday that the Mossad gave Turkey the information that helped its commandos locate and capture Ocalan, also known as "Apo." Speaking before the assault on the Berlin consulate, the rebel leader said they have no intention of attacking Israeli targets. Yet Ocalan's PKK said the assault on Israel's consulate in Berlin was the result of a "dirty war" conducted by Turkey and its ally Israel on the Kurds. "The incident in Berlin... is an example and result of this alliance founded on this dirty war," PKK spokeswoman Mizgin Sen told the Belgium-based Kurdish Med TV channel. The security agreement signed with Israel in 1996 provides for intelligence cooperation. Israel is also selling Turkey's powerful armed forces materiel including night vision equipment as well as anti-rocket systems employed in helicopters. Liel said that it was not difficult for the Kurdish rebels to see the "great romance" developing between Turkey and Israel, with such Israeli weapons and technology flowing to Turkey. While not everything Turkey does or wants benefits Israel, the immediate payoff of the close ties has been lucrative defense contracts and, according to foreign reports, sharing of intelligence. "There is no such thing as a free lunch," said Prof. Efraim Inbar, head of the BESA strategic think tank at Bar-Ilan University. "We have to look at some alliances through their cost-benefits. The IAF is flying in Turkey and Turkish officials said that under certain circumstances we would be able to use their territory and that is of great deterrent value. "We should not make enemies if it is not necessary, but on the other hand, what is at stake is a very important relationship. We should not be hysterical even if we have to pay a price," Inbar said. Turkish sources close to the defense establishment said there was satisfaction in Ankara over the firm Israeli response in Berlin. "The Kurds made a big mistake there. Let this be a good lesson for them," one source in Ankara quoted Turkish defense sources as saying. "The Turks are always thanking me. They are living on the image, much of which is supplied by the banner headlines of the Turkish press, that we are helping them greatly," Liel said. >From LA Times Thursday, February 18, 1999 Turkey Aims to Shackle More Than Ocalan By RICHARD BOUDREAUX, Times Staff Writer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ <Picture: A>NKARA, Turkey--A day after bringing Abdullah Ocalan home to face trial, Turkey on Wednesday sought to turn the capture of the Kurdish warlord into a demoralizing rout of his cause, sending troops against his insurgents' strongholds in northern Iraq and airing a videotape of the macho orator looking ill, dispirited and barely able to speak. The merciless guerrilla chief, whose struggle for Kurdish self-rule made him Turkey's most wanted fugitive, was reduced to a dazed, exhausted prisoner in the short video repeated throughout the day on Turkish television. At one point in the footage--a shock to Kurdish militants already reeling from his arrest in Kenya--Ocalan asks his jubilant captors not to torture him. Instead, they mock him. The propaganda clip and the military offensive were aimed at Ocalan's thousands of armed followers, his millions of sympathizers and their goal of an autonomous ethnic Kurdish homeland in Turkey's impoverished southeast. In the last 15 years, the separatist conflict has claimed about 30,000 lives. Western governments and human rights monitors have voiced concern over Turkey's uncompromising approach, saying it could undermine his chances of a fair trial. Ocalan, who is charged with treason, terrorism, promoting separatism and ordering killings, faces a possible death sentence. Aside from the death penalty, European governments watching the Ocalan case have expressed concern over Turkey's record of torture of Kurdish guerrilla suspects and its lack of an internationally accepted appeals procedure. The United States, a close ally of Turkey, tempered its approval of Ocalan's arrest with a plea Tuesday for evenhanded justice. "We certainly trust that Turkey will conduct a fair and open trial in a manner consistent with international standards of due process. We don't have any reason to expect otherwise," State Department spokesman James Foley said. "But certainly the world community will be looking forward to a trial of that nature." Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit offered assurances Wednesday that Ocalan's trial would be "very just." Turkish courts, he insisted, are independent. "Turkey will put to shame those who have any doubts on the issue," he told CNN in an interview. But then his tone turned partisan. Asked how long the trial could last, the prime minister said, "It need not last too long, because all the unlawful actions, the crimes of the [rebel] leadership are known." Ecevit also defended Turkey's refusal to allow three of Ocalan's European lawyers to enter the country from the Netherlands. They were turned back at Istanbul's airport early Wednesday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Sarmet Atacanli said the three had "acted in the past as militants rather than legitimate lawyers" and would not be allowed to "interfere" with the trial. The decision raised concern that Amnesty International and other rights watchdogs would also be barred as observers. Under Turkish law, a defendant may be represented only by Turkish counsel. The Dutch-based lawyers vowed to keep pressing Turkish authorities for access to their client. "We do not know . . . whether he has been tortured, whether he has been mistreated," said Britta Boehler, one of the three. "We do not know anything." Turkish security courts, which combine civilian and military judges, had already opened several cases against Ocalan. The cases have proceeded--but cannot conclude--without his presence. Officials have said the cases may be combined into one trial. No starting date has been set. Although the treason charge against Ocalan is punishable in Turkey by hanging, no prisoner has been executed here since 1984. Ecevit said Wednesday that he personally opposes the death penalty but acknowledged there is strong resistance in parliament to abolishing it. Ecevit said Ocalan has been imprisoned on Imrali island in the Sea of Marmara. Turkish commandos took him into custody late Monday after he left the Greek Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya--his hide-out since Feb. 2--and spirited him to Turkish soil for the first time in 20 years. The guerrilla leader had been on the run after fleeing his longtime base in Syria last fall under a Turkish threat to invade that country. Turkey's offensive into northern Iraq involves an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 troops, who began crossing the border with armored vehicles about the time of Ocalan's arrest. Such Turkish incursions are periodic, but this one was bigger than usual. More devastating to Kurdish militants was the video shot by Ocalan's captors. Never a front-line fighter, Ocalan achieved supreme authority among Kurdish rebels as the burly, bearded political boss and forceful training-camp orator who dominated Med-TV, the movement's London-based satellite channel. The image on the video released by Turkey's intelligence service is stunningly different. Ocalan is shown being put aboard a private jet in Kenya blindfolded with tape and bound by handcuffs. He is then strapped into a seat, and the tape wrapped around his head is cut away. He winces. A close-up shows his face drenched in sweat. "If the truth needs to be told, I love Turkey and the Turkish nation and I want to serve it," Ocalan says, grimacing. "If I have the chance, I would be pleased to serve. Let there be no torture or anything. I would be happy to serve." 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