Bulletin de liaison etd'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
Radical Turks' Suicide Plot Gets
2d LookAfter
By Douglas Frantz
Nèw York Times Service
'. COLOGNE - Three years before the
Sept. Il attacks, a little-known Islamic
group in Germany plotted a similarly
aud3cious suicide assault on the pride of
Turkish nationalism: Ataturk's mausoleum
in Ankara.'
The plan was to crash a private airplane
packed with explosives into the
hilltop shrinejust as hundreds ofTurkish
political figures, dignitaries, generals
and foreign ambassadors rose to observe
the 75th ~versary of secular Turkey
by honoring its founder. ..
The Turkish intelligence authorities
foiled the scheme, and 18 people were
later (;9nvicted. But the conspiracy is
being looked at again because of the
discovery of evidence !linking Osam~
bin Laden.to the'German-based group,
which is led by a renegade Turkish
preacher, Metin Kaplan. Mr. Kaplan advocates
the killing of all nonbelievers
and is bent in particular on the destruction
of Turkey's secular.government..
, According to intelligence officials in
Turkey and Germany, a delegation from
the organization, known as the Kaplan
Group and comprising mostly Turks living
in Germany, met with Mr. bin Laden
in Afghanistan the year before the
planned attack in Ankara and later sent
people therefor training. .
The ties between Mr. bin Laden's
network, Al Qaeda, and radical Turks in
Germany illustrate the reach and complexity
of the loose network of militant
groups opposed to Western democracy
and intent on establishing Islamic ruleand
the difficulty of combating what
President George W. Bush describes as
"tens ofthousands" oftrained terrorists
roaming the world.
'
They also highlight the dangers lurking
in radical Islamic organizations in
Germany, which is horne to 2 million
Turks and was a base for the suspected
mastermind of the Sept. Il attacks: Mohamed
Atta, an Egyptian. Some officials
, regard the Kaplan Group as Germany's'
most ràdical Islamic organization.
"What should not be underestimated
is that Kaplan is part of a larger movement
of extremist Islamic groups in Ger-
,many that really need to be watched very
closely," Ottmar Breidling, the German
judge who sent the' group' s leader to
prison, said in an interview. .
Turkey's interior minister, Rustu
Kazim Yucelen, sâid in aI). Intèr'Viewthit
"Turkish naines foun