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

REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVIEW~BERHEVOKAÇAPÊ~RNISTA
STAMPA~DENTRO DE lA PRJë.NSA~BASlNÖZETi
following Euro-crackdown
PKK./eels pressure growinK
Öcalan also goes through him.
l:Jeis the one person, other than
Ocalan's Syrian origin personal
aide, "Hamit", who sees the
PKK leader on a daily basis. He
is always with and close to
Öcalan.
When the PKK declared its
unilateral cease-fire last March,
BaYlk was among the first to
contest it saying that the decision
was untimely. When a PKK
unit spoiled the cease-fire
through a preemptive massacre
in Bingöl, BaYIkwas the first to
hear the news aQ.drelay it to his
leader. Though Ocalan was misinformed
that the 35 unarmed
soldiers who were disembarked
from a bus and killed were victims
of a clash with a local PKK
unit.
All PKK regional commanders
are attached to BaYIkas part
of the so-called Kurdistan Peode
guerre Cuma (Friday). BaYIk
was formerly in charge of all
PKK activities in and from Iraq
and Iran.
During the 1992 joint Turkish-Iraqi
Kurdish crackdown on
the PKK in northern Iraq, he had
a back injury and was withdrawn
to Damascus where --
with the assistance of Syrian officials
-- he was operated on and
treated.
BaYIk, a PKK Central Committee
member, is among the
founders of the organization,
and has been together with
Ocalan since the mid 1980s.
Currently, he too is based in
Syria and the Syrianocontrolled
territories of Lebanon, but holds
the title of Military Council
commander.
Every piec!; of information
heading to Ocalan goes via
BaYlk, and every "order" from
pies' Liberation Army (ARGK),
and he is directlr responsible for
the organization s armed attacks.
BaYIk, who now heads some
10,000 militants in the whole of
the region, often passes on orders
using a sophjsticated wireless
set, which can reach out into
the depths of Turkish territory,
or .by using a normal telephone
with code words. After the orders
are passed, carrying them
out is up to the regional commanders.
RIza Altun:
Most of the time, a second
person, RIza Altun, is placed in
charge of the technical aspect of
communications. If BaYlk is at a
distance from the wireless set --
if for instance it is in Lebanon
but the commander himself is in
Syria _: orders are relayed
through Altun. "
BaYlk systematically denies
he is a PKK hard-liner, but both
Iraqi Kurdish leaders and security
officials in Ankara challenge
this denial. For them, BaYlk is a
leading hard-liner within the organization.
Altun, who has spent seven
out of his nine years in prison
trapped in a dark confinement
cell, is also a hard-liner and is
less inclined to deny it. He was
reportedly tortured for over a
year while under detention in
Diyarbalar in the 1980s, and, after
his release from prison last
year along with Mustafa Karasu,
was "taken out of the country by
the organization. In return for
his "commendable resistance"
while in jail, Altun was named
as a Central Committee member,
a position he currently holds.
Semdin Saluk:
Another crucial link that
BaYIk has is his direct relationship
with. the PKK's regional
commander in charge of the
Amed, or greater DiyarbakIr region,
~emdin Salak. The massacre
of off-duty soldiers in Bingöl
last May \ which ended' the
cease-fire, was carried out by a
unit attached to Salak, who is di-
KANI YILMAZ: The next closest person to Ocalan after BaYlk is Kani
Yllmaz, a Central Committee member of the organization who is now
portrayed as the European representative of the PKK's Peoples' Liberation
Front (ERNK). Despite the title he uses in Europe, apparently
designed ~o allow him to stay there without legal tangles, YIImaz
is actually Öcalan's "political advisor," a person very close to the
PKK leader who has much influence and say on major policy issues.
ALI SAPAN: Along with Akif Hasan, Sapan is part of the superstructure
in Europe and despite his legal title as "ERNK spokesman" he is
a known member of the Central Committee. He too has great influence
on Ocalan and is expected to have further say on organizational
affairs in the future. He is said to be the third key name in the inner
circle which is really controlling the PKK. He has a major role in
PKK propaganda activities as well.
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