PKK General Says Kurdish Militants are Ready for War or Peace
An Exclusive Interview with Murat Karayilan/ Jamestown Foundation 24.09.2009- (..) In an August 11 interview with Karayilan in a
PKK camp located in the mountains of northern Iraq, Karayilan said that
he would like to return to his home country. “But I am not dreaming
about this, I am a realist.”
Submitted by Tsiatsan on Saturday, September 26 2009
Bombing Defendants Accuse Police of Forcing Confessions
Bawir Cakir-A bomb in Güngören, Istanbul kiled 17 people and injured 154 in July
2008. The trial of nine defendants, one of them undetained, started
yesterday (11 May) in Besiktas, Istanbul.Relatives of those killed or injured had gathered in front of the court
and wanted to lynch the defendants, who were protected by the police.
One of the defendants shouted, “We have no connection to the Güngören
bombings. This is a conspiracy.”
Turkey's main Kurdish party appeals for help after crackdown
The Guardian 27.04.2009-Turkey's main Kurdish political party has appealed for international
support after hundreds of its officials were arrested in a crackdown by
Turkish authorities.The Democratic Society party (DTP) has written to
members of the European parliament asking them to speak out against the
arrests, which follow the party's surprise success in last month's
local elections. The DTP, the fourth largest party in the Turkish
parliament with 20 seats, fears that the arrests will radicalise the
Kurdish minority and make a solution to the Kurdish problem even more
elusive.
PIK:Turkey’s new wave of repression must be resisted
Peace in Kurdistan Campaign statement 19.04.2009-News of a wave of arrests of Democratic Society Party (DTP) members across the Turkey is deeply dismaying and can only bode ill for the future of the country.On 17 April it was reported that Turkish police had carried out raids in places from Izmir in the west to Batman in the south-east and the capital Ankara. Some 43 people were reportedly arrested for alleged links with the PKK.This was the second wave of arrests in the space of a week. Earlier more than 70 people were arrested, including senior members of the DTP. The names published by the DTP lists a total of 90 arrested DTP members (available from PIK). Firat news agency reported that 245 people had been arrested over a four-day period.Such actions are an affront to democracy and can only be viewed as a cynical attempt to crush the hopes of all the Kurds who only a few days earlier had courageously braved the harassment and intimidation from police and military to cast their votes in overwhelming numbers for the DTP.
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An Exclusive Interview with Murat Karayilan/ Jamestown Foundation 24.09.2009-
