International
At the height of its campaign, the organization received support from many countries. The level of support given has changed throughout this period.
Support of Syria[67][72]
From early 1979 to 1999 Syria had provided valuable safe havens to PKK in the region of Beqaa Valley. After the undeclared war between Turkey and Syria, Syria placed restrictions on PKK activity on its soil. Turkey is expecting positive developments in its cooperation with Syria in the long term, but even during the course of 2005, there were PKK operatives of Syrian nationality operating in Turkey.
Support of Iran[73][page needed]
Iran listed PKK as a terrorist organization after Iran's supply of resources to the PKK began to be used on its own soil. Iran provided PKK with supplies in the form of weapons and funds.
Support of Greece
retired Greek L.T. General Dimitris Matafias and retired Greek Navy Admiral Antonis Neksasis had visited organization's Mahsun Korkmaz base camp in Bakaa valley in October 1988 along with parliamentarians from the panhellenic Socialist movement (PASOK).[74] At the time it was reported that the general has assumed responsibility for training. Greeks also dispatched arms through the Republic of Cyprus.[74] In December 1993, Greek European affairs minister Theodoros Pangalos was quoted as saying "we must be supportive of the Kurdish people to be free".[75] Greece declined to join Germany and France and the eleven other members at the EU to ban the organization.[75] During the 1990s, Greece supplied the rebels.[76]
Support of the Republic of Cyprus
was alleged when Abdullah Öcalan was caught with a Cypriot passport to the name of Mavros Lazaros, a nationalist reporter.
Support of the Soviet Union and Russia
[77] According to the former KGB-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in 2006, PKK's leader Abdullah Ocalan was trained by KGB-FSB.[78] As of 2008, Russia is still not among the states that list PKK as a terrorist group despite intense Turkish pressures.
United Kingdom
MED TV broadcast for five years in the UK, until its license was revoked by the regulators the Independent Television Commission (ITC) in 1999. The PKK has been listed as a terrorist organisation since 2001. In 2008 the United Kingdom detained members of the PKK and seized the assets of the PKK's representative in Britain, Selman Bozkur, alias “Dr. Hüseyin”. His assets remain frozen.[79]
Support of various Europe states
Despite Brussels' designation of the group as a terrorist organization, the EU continues to permit the broadcasting of the organization's networks on the Hot Bird 3 satellite owned by the French company Eutelsat. MEDYA TV started transmissions from studios in Belgium via a satellite uplink from France. MEDYA TV's license was revoked by the French authorities. A few weeks later Roj TV began transmissions from Denmark. It has also been argued that the Netherlands and Belgium have supported the PKK by allowing its training camps to function in their respective territories. On November 22, 1998, Hanover's criminal police reported that three children had been trained by the PKK for guerrilla warfare in camps in the Netherlands and Belgium.[80] After the death of Theo van Gogh, with increasing attention on domestic security concerns, the Dutch police raided the 'PKK paramilitary camp' in the Dutch town of Liempde and arrested 29 people in November 2004.[81] Denmark allows Kurdish satellite television stations (such as ROJ-TV), which Turkey claims has links with the PKK, to operate in Denmark and broadcast into Turkey.[82]
Various PKK leaders, including Hidir Yalcin, Riza Altun, Zubeyir Aydar, and Ali Haydar Kaytan all lived in Europe and moved freely. The free movement was archived by the strong ties with influential persons. Danielle Mitterrand, the wife of the former President of France, had active connections during the 90s with elements of the organization's leadership that forced a downgrade in relationships between the two states.[83] Ali Rıza Altun, a suspected key figure with an Interpol arrest warrant on his name, after harboring him for some time Austria arranged a flight to Iraq.. Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gül summoned the Austrian ambassador and condemned Austria's action.[84] On September 30, 1995, While Öcalan was in Syria, Damascus initiated contact with high ranking German CDU MP Heinrich Lummer and German intelligence officials.
The Chief of the Turkish General Staff during 2007, General Yaşar Büyükanıt, stated that even though the international struggle had been discussed on every platform and even though organizations such as the UN, NATO, EU make statements of serious commitment, to this day the necessary measures had not been taken.[85] According to Büyükanıt; "this conduct on one side has encouraged the terrorists, on the other side it assisted in widening their [the terrorists] activities. The most distressful part of it is that many of the European countries being a member of NATO, an organization that had announced that terrorism was the greatest threat to itself.[85]" Sedat Laçiner, of the Turkish think tank ISRO, says that US support of the PKK undermines the US War on Terrorism.[86] Seymour Hersh claimed that the U.S. supported PEJAK, the Iranian branch of the PKK.[87] The head of the PKK's militant arm, Murat Karayilan, claimed that Iran attempted to recruit the PKK to attack coalition forces, adding that Kurdish guerrillas had launched a clandestine war in north-western Iran, ambushing Iranian troops.[88]
Quellen :
^ a b Turkey, Landmine Monitor, 2006.
^
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,711536,00.html
^
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=184612
^
http://kurdishrights.org/2010/08/20/german-experts-accuse-turkey-of-using-chemical-weapons/
^ Turkish officials deny Der Spiegel's claim on use of chemical weapons
^ a b "Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK)". Counter-Terrorism Studies. International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT). Archived from the original on 2006-06-30. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
^ "Terrorism > Financing of its activities". Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
^ "Drug trafficking > Drug trafficking and PKK". INTERPOL. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
^ Pike, John (2004-05-21). "Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)". Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
^ "Survey: Over 50 percent of PKK terrorists below 25". Zaman. 2007-12-25. Retrieved 2008-07-23.[dead link]
^ Calabresi, Massimo (1998-03-30). "A Hellenic Haven". Time. Retrieved 2007-10-22.
