Search under way for German mountaineers kidnapped by PKK
As Turkish gendarmes continue their search for three Germans abducted Tuesday by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) while climbing Mt. Ağrı, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office has advised UK travelers against all but essential travel to the region.

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Governor of Ağrı Mehmet Çetin said the mountain was closed to climbing since operations to free the German tourists are ongoing. Çetin also noted that 10 other German mountaineers would leave the Doğubeyazit region, which is at the foot of Mt. Ağrı, as a result of talks between Turkish officials and members of a delegation from the German Embassy.

Five PKK terrorists kidnapped the three climbers, part of a 13-member German team, from their camp at 3,200 meters late Tuesday. The 10 other Germans returned to the city of Ağrı after the incident. The group of German mountaineers, headed by a guide, obtained a legal permit to climb Ağrı by applying to the Ağrı Governor's Office through the Foreign Ministry in Ankara and arrived in the province three days ago, Çetin said.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Burak Özügergin said Turkish and German foreign ministries have been in close cooperation to see that the climbers are safely freed. He said it was too early to comment on whether or not it was PKK members who kidnapped the tourists.

Interior Minister Beşir Atalay said the three German citizens were kidnapped by the "terrorists" and that Turkish authorities are cooperating with German officials to shed light on the issue.

"We are speaking with the German interior minister and the German Embassy here in Turkey on the phone. We are following up on the case," said Atalay in İstanbul.

The German Foreign Ministry also said the three remained out of reach but that efforts to free them were ongoing. In Berlin, a spokeswoman for the ministry was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that "a crisis unit is working intensively to find a solution to this case."

Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on German television station ARD that "they have been investigating the reasons behind the kidnapping and doing their best to have the German tourists freed." Steinmeier also noted that they have established a crisis desk at the German Foreign Ministry and that they are in close contact with Turkish officials.

The German Foreign Ministry also advised German citizens not to visit the Turkish provinces of Hakkari, Şırnak, Mardin and Siirt unless absolutely necessary because they could be subject to PKK violence and kidnapping.

PKK blames Germany's policies

He also said the terrorists possibly carried out this act because of the German government's recent moves against the PKK, reported the Anatolia news agency. The governor was referring to the fact that the Denmark-based Roj TV station, one of the main propaganda tools of the PKK, was recently banned in Germany because of its support for the PKK's terrorist activities against Turkey.

Meanwhile, Fırat news agency reported yesterday that the PKK militants would not release the three Germans until Germany halted its policies against the PKK. They were also reported to be in good health.

On the ARD station, commentators said the PKK militants are possibly pro-*test*-('")ing against the German Interior Ministry's decision to ban Roj-TV's broadcasts in Germany.

Most German television stations provided extensive coverage on the PKK and its past abductions. German media's İstanbul correspondents reported that the news of the kidnapping was overshadowed by the news of a terror attack on the US Consulate General in İstanbul on Wednesday.

The PKK members abducted foreign tourists and climbers in the early 1990s to draw world attention to their cause. All of them were later freed unharmed.

Vural Öğer, a member of the European Parliament, told the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau that this act of kidnapping differs somewhat from the previous PKK abductions because it was not planned beforehand by the larger structure of the organization.

On the other hand, Hans Branscheidt, a German terrorism expert, said the abduction came as a pro-*test*-('") against the German government's policies against the PKK.

Terrorism in the region

The eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey have seen an increase in terrorist attacks in recent years. Since December of last year the Turkish military has been regularly attacking PKK positions in the mountains of northern Iraq, where several thousand PKK terrorists are believed to be based.

The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the Southeast. About 40,000 people have been killed in the more than two-decade-long conflict.

11 July 2008, Friday
TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES İSTANBUL

KURDISH KIDNAPPERS' DEMANDS

PKK Calls on Berlin to End 'Hostile Policy'

PKK separatists kidnapped three German mountain climbers on Tuesday. Now they say the men won't be released until Germany abandons its "hostile policies" towards the Kurds. The action seems to be in response to Germany's tougher policy toward the PKK in recent months.

The kidnappers kept silent for more than a day but now they have issued their demands for releasing the three Germans they snatched in Turkey on Tuesday evening.

The separatist Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which has been banned in Germany for 15 years, says it will only release the German captives if Berlin abandons its "hostile policy" against the Kurdish people and the PKK.

Speaking to the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency, the PKK guerrillas said the hostages, who had been part of climbing team on Mount Ararat, are in good health.

"We have no hostile feelings against the German people, and the three prisoners have not been mistreated in any way," the group told the news agency. The kidnappers have also demanded that the Turkish government halt its operations in the area in order to assure the safety of the hostages.

The immediate response from Berlin was to reject the PKK demands. "Germany does not allow itself to be blackmailed," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday.

Cemal Kaya, an aide to the regional governor of Agri province, told the Associated Press that Turkish paramilitary forces are now scouring the region searching for the three men. "Our hope is that they will be released and handed over to the authorities without any harm."

The three men, aged 33, 47 and 65, were part of a group of 13 mountaineers and were abducted by five Kurdish rebels (more...) from their 3,200-meter-high (10,500) camp on Mount Ararat. The three seemed to have been picked out at random, and the other 10 climbers returned to the city of Agri on Wednesday.

In Berlin the Foreign Ministry has established an emergency task force to work towards securing the release of the three climbers, who all hail from Bavaria. Steinmeier said on Wednesday that the government was "doing everything it could to secure their release soon." He added that the task force was "working intensively on the case and is in contact with officials in Turkey."

This week's kidnapping is widely regarded as a response to the ban the German government imposed on the Kurdish television station Roj TV in June. Interior Minster Wolfgang Schäuble said at the time that the station was a mouthpiece for the PKK, which was banned in Germany in 1993 (more...) after it carried out a series of fire-bombings of Turkish and German institutions in Berlin. The PKK has been agitating for a separate state for the Kurds in southeast Turkey since the early 1980s, and some 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Germany is home to 2.5 million Turks, including an estimated 500,000 Turkish Kurds. German intelligence agencies estimate that there are 11,500 PKK members in Germany. Last October Turkish nationalists and pro-Kurdish demonstrators clashed in Berlin (more...) amid tensions over Ankara's plans to go after PKK rebels in northern Iraq.

In 2002 the European Union named the PKK a terrorist organization and in recent years Germany has stepped up its cooperation with Ankara in cracking down on the PKK within its borders, with Berlin extraditing two Kurdish militants to Turkey last year.


http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/...,565110,00.html

How the PKK Operates in Europe

By Philipp Wittrock in Berlin

While the PKK concentrates on non-violent activities and propaganda work in Germany and Europe, in Turkey it is involved in a violent struggle for an autonomous Kurdish homeland. The kidnapping of three German tourists has put the issue firmly back on the political agenda in Berlin.

"Germany has declared war on the PKK. We can fight back. Every Kurd is a potential suicide bomber." These combative words were spoken by Abdullah Öcalan, head of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) back in 1996, three years after the group had been banned in Germany.
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There is a huge support based for the PKK in Germany, which is home to an estimated 500,000 Kurds. According to a recent report from Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there are around 11,500 supporters of the Kongra-Gel (more...), the name the PKK adopted in 2003.


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Amazing what the cave dweller had balls to say before he got busted. Then the son of a bitch did a 180 and asked forgiveness from us and said that he loved Turkiye and Turks and went on as far to say that his mother was Turkish. Any traces of hitler if he would have been taken alive? Simply an OC.

Damn terrorists just don't know when to stop...

I think its good, the germans might crack down now even more on the organisation within germany. The only way this can go wrong is if germany bows to their demands.