Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RwISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETÎ
Jets hit northern Iraq
• France expands crackdown on PKK, the organization threatens GeT11Ulny
• Çiller says no civilians hanned during bombing oj 'PKK camps'
.• Iraqi Kurds say two villages hit, three dead, 6 children injured
• KDP claims victims had links with international aid agencies
Turkish Daily News
ANKARA- Turkish warplanes carried
out a five-hour strike on nine separate
targets in northern Iraq, Prime
Minister Tansu Çiller said on Tuesday..
. ..
Çiller saId the targets of the aIr raIds
were camps of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), and that no civilians
were hanued.
Iraqi Kurdish officials claimed, however
that the "indiscriminate" attacks.
targèted two villages in the Barzan area
and left three civilians killed and six
éhildren wounded. A statement issued
from Çiller's press office said there
were neithèr civilian settlements nor
northern Iraqis within at least four kilometers
of the targets. "Northern Iraqi
officials were informed of the operation
on time," it said.
"The operation started at 10:30 a ..m.
local time and ended at 3:~0 p.m. NIn~
taroets in the areas of Mez!, Keryaden,
Si~i and Shiviwere. hit, an~ ~ total of
16 sorties were carned out, It added.
According to the sta.tement, the oper~tion
was carried out In a 400 square-kilometer
(10 x 40) area.
Çiller said, "The tents and shelters
where the terrorists were hiding have
been destroyed. Neither a single Ir~qi
soldier nor any settlements belongm~
to Iraqi citizens have been harmed. '
The operation zone was reportedly the
border area, north of the 36th parallel,
where Iraq has no control.
Although the prime minister said the
operation was carried out only after
Iraq was infonued, a spokesperson for
. the Iraqi embassy in Ankara said they
had received no information on the
raids. .'
Contrary to the government report, a
strongly worded statement issued by
the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party
(KDP) said that Turkish warplanes had
bombed on Monday two Kurdish villages
in the Barzan region inside Iraqi
Kurdistan.
"The latest air raid killed three civilians
,and wounded six children in the
villages of Hiezen and Siena. These
villa~es are located nearly 40 kilometers
aeep inside northern Iraq. The villagers
are new Iraqi-Kurdish returnees
who have been assisted in their return
4
to their native home by international aid
agencies," it said.
It added, "There have been indiscriminate
Turkish air raids and shellings of innocent
Kurdish civilians in the border region. There
are serious doubts that all these attacks have
been carried out by Turkey in error. There is
no PKK presence or base in the targeted area."
The KDP also condemned the raids and
called on the Turkish government "to compensate
victims of the last air attack and end
ItS cross-border attacks on Kurdish civil-
. lans .."
Anti.PKK operations in Europe
The operations against .PKK activities in
Europe continued on Tuesday as the 12
countries of the European Umon
reach a consensus on the issue.
failed
.
to
France on Tuesday banned two Kurdish
groups, expanding
activIsts, involved
the crackdown
in a separatist
in which
campaign
. against Turkey,
rorist activities.
have been charged with ter-
Officials in France ordered
the dissolution of the Kurdistan Committee
and the Federation of Cultural Associations
and Patriotic. Workers of Kurdistan, said
government
Sarkozy
spokesman
called the
Nicolas Sar~ozx.
two orgamzatIons
"spinoff groups" of the PKK whIch is fighting
a 9-year-old guerrilla war for an independent
Kurdish state in southeastern Tur- '
key, in which more than Il,000
been killed so far.
people have
Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, known
for his tough tactics against crime and illegal
immigration, had urged the action and
was backed by the Cabinet of conservative
Premier Edouard Balladur during its weekly
meeting Tuesday, Sarkozy said. The French
government's decision came a week after
Germany,often a haven for political groups
in exile, outlawed
Party or PKK.
the Kurdistan Workers'
Germany and German interests in Turkey.
were threatened by the PKK on Tuesday for
"backing Ankara against the PKK." Holding
a press conference in the, German city of
Cologne, Cengiz Dereli, the spokesman of
the outlawed Kurdistan CommIttee said that.
Germany's
take."
decision was a "political mis-
Meanwhile, groups of people occupied
two associations in Nurnberg and Ingolstadt
in Germany, which were dosed down by
the Genuan government because of their involvement
in PKK activities. The pro-PKK.
demonstrators said thatthey would blow up .
the building if police intervened. The police
fired into the air twice to disperse the
crowd, but failed to prohibit the occupation
in Nurnberg.
The possIbility of a joint EU polièy on legal
moves against the PKK was discussed in
two-days of talks in Brussels, ending Tuesday.
The 12 failed to come up with a joint
strategy because of different approaches on
the issue. Turkey's historical nval Greece
reportedly stood. against banning the activities
of the PKK with this bemg a move
which might benefit Turkey, its ally in
NATO.
Genuanlnterior Minister Manfred Kanther
revealed that only Greece had opposed
placing the PKK on the EO's list of terrorist
organizations.
Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller reportedly
had a telephone conversation with
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl on Monday
evening and evalu~ted the. recent. sit.uation
as re,gards cooperatIon agamst terronsm
and other political matters. Belgian Interior
Minister Louis Tobback said that his country
did not criticize Germany's decision to.
outlaw the PKK, but the level of activities
of the organization in Belgium had not yet
reached the level experienced in Germany.
Belgian intelligence units, quoted by Anatolia
news agency, accused Tobback on the
other hand of ignoring the threat coming
from the PKK, blockmg their operations
against the PKK. The Europe headquarters
of the ERNK, the so-called p~litical front ~f
the PKK which was banned In Germany, IS
in Brussels.
Following Germany's move, ERNK's.
spokesman Kani Ytlmaz once again threatened
European tourists goin& to Turkey next
yeT~rkish Foreign Minister Hikmet çetin,
who is in Rome for the meeting of the Con- .
ference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
(CSCE) and met with his West Europe-.
an counterparts brieflyon Tuesday, said that.
European countries are working on a plan to .
take Joint action on the prohibition of terror- .
ist activities in Europe.. .
Çetin said he also talked with his Bulgari- .
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