TRUE FACE OF PKK TERROR GROUP AND ITS LEADER
A report jointly drawn up in 1997 by the French “Group of Information and Research on the Security Affairs”, “Criminological Institute in Paris” and the French Secretariat on the National Defence, under the heading, “DEGENERATED GUERILLA GROUP—PKK” had revealed the true face of the group’s leader ABDULLAH ÖCALAN, recently arrested in Italy, to the entire world.
The English version of the report, based on various intelligence reports, is as follows:
“PKK’s origin stretches back the current of MAOISM that shook up Europe as well as Turkey, towards late 1960s. Beginning from 1970s, Turkish MAOISTS had been affiliated to militant Communist groups like DEV-SOL (Revolutionary Left) or to other groups trying to air the Kurdish national claims. Founders of PKK were part of this current. In their blood-thirsty methods, their hardline-Leninism mixed with nationalism, the supremacy of its leader, their internal and external atrocities, their rural background and their rural guerilla warfare, they had considerable similarities with Abimael Guzman’s (Gonzalo’s) Enlightened Path.
“Abdullah Öcalan is the person that has been ruling PKK from the very beginning. His purpose is to establish a Kurdish movement, equivalent to the Turkish MAOIST movement, in a strictest Marxist-Leninist style, and instigate the insurgence of the Kurdish people towards forming a Communist Kurdish state that would stretch up to Iran, Iraq and Syria.
“PKK created the National Liberation Front for Kurdistan (ERNK). The headquarters of ERNK that is also under Öcalan’s control is in Athens. ERNK’s official spokesman is stationed there as well. It is the Popular Liberation Army (ARGK) which pursues armed fighting on the front. The name “Popular Liberation Army” clearly unravels the MAOIST influence over the group.
“As a means of external propaganda, PKK shows, especially to Europe, the casualties among the civilians in the war and even the brutality of the PKK guerilla campaign, as the human rights violations committed by the Turkish army, police and gendarmerie.
PKK-ASALA RELATIONS
“PKK was in favourable relations with certain movements close to DAMASCUS. Firstly, there were Palestinian groups (guerilla or terror groups). Certain elements of PKK collaborated with the special external operations command of the “Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” (PFLP) led by Wadi Haddad. The future members of PKK and the secret army for the liberation of Armenia (ASALA) came together for the this time in this period. Their aspirations on the Turkish territories prepared the ground for their upcoming alliance.
“Some of the Kurds are very close to the Armenians. In summer 1992, they established the “Armenian Movement” at PKK’s branch in Germany, Krasnodar, with the initiative of the Kurdish leaders in the former Soviet Union. The purpose of this organisation was not only to assist Armenia but also to help PKK to be settled in Yerevan, thus establishing a base from where attacks on Turkey could be organised.
“Venue for the second-round contacts between the Armenians and the Kurds was Lebanon. These contacts that began in late 1970s were officialized, following Abdullah Öcalan’s meeting with the Patriarch of the Armenian Gregorian Church. Ties between the Armenian Gregorian Church and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (DASHNAK) were quite close. That’s why this meeting between the patriarch and Öcalan brought up a cooperation between PKK and DASHNAK.
“Indifference developed by Western Europe in the wake of these developments created a fresh stage of crime and terror between the political-military Armenian groups and PKK. This criminal and terrorist “underworld organisation” began to seep through the cavities it found on the network of the growing network of the former Soviet Union. PKK, in addition, gets support from the Armenians living in America and Europe.
On 28 December 1994, President Levon der Petrosian banned the activities of DASHNAK and its subsidiary bodies. Their bureaus were raided by the police and their property confiscated. The reason for this was the presence of a secret unit within DASHNAK called DRO. Since 1992, DRO had been involved, in Armenia and amongst the Armenians abroad, in such criminal activities as terrorism against the Government, narcotic drugs trafficking, arms smuggling, collecting illegal tributes and espionage. Its foremost duty was to establish relations with groups hostile to Turkey. As a result, in May 1994, Armed Forces of Armenia caught seven Kurds and three Armenians who were trying to cross the Turkey-Armenia border.
PKK’S ALLIES
“Since its foundation, PKK has maintained its ties with Hafez Assad’s Syria. This alliance is confirmed with its settlement in Damascus following the 1980 military takeover in Turkey in 1980 and then with its transfer to Lebanon under Syria’s control.
“Reliable sources reported about the presence of contacts between the Marxist-Leninist PKK and the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1988. Relations between PKK and Hizbullah have become more intensified in Lebanon.
“There exist ties between PKK and Saddam Hussein as well. Starting in September 1989, rumours to the effect that there was a secret alliance between PKK and the Iraqi Government have been verified so much that the Iraqi Foreign Ministry had to rule this out as baseless. According to KDP and KYB, since 1988, PKK has been supplying to Iraq, intelligence about the other Kurdish parties, in return of money and arms. In September 1990, Öcalan publicly joined forces with Saddam Hussein who “is fighting against the American imperialism”. This strategic choice was confirmed in the following remarks of a military leader of PKK: “What is important for us is the Revolution in the Middle East. In order to attain this, we can fight on the side of every revolutionary state or power in the region.” This person added that PKK had had contacts with the Iraqi army in Zaho since August 1990. When rumours to the effect that Saddam was consigning arms to PKK in large quantities increased; in an attempt to vindicate himself, Öcalan claimed, in press statements in late 1990s, that these arms were abandoned by the Iraqi army and that the arms were seized by his men.
“In the meantime, a report published in the issue dated 20 October 1991 of ‘the New York Times’ read as follows:
‘Turkish officials, Western diplomats and the Kurdish leaders in Iraq say that the Iraqi Government is arming the Kurds in south-east Anatolia, certainly as a retaliation to the Turks’ cooperation with the Allied Forces during the Gulf crisis.’
“Furthermore, in its issue dated 27 April 1992, ‘Kayhan’, a religious fundamentalist newspaper, published an interview with Tamer Ramadan Kocher, KDP’s Chairman in ZAHO region, who reportedly said: ‘We suspect that the Iraqi Government had committed acts of sabotage through PKK. There is a great number of PKK militants in the region.. They provide their arms and intelligence from Baghdad.. PKK has got bases in Zaho. Some of their leaders meet Iraqi leaders who help them.’
“In this way, PKK’s regional strategy has become known. This strategy may be summarised as follows: ‘Do not put all your eggs in one basket and turn, one by one, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria against each other.’ Among various connections of PKK on the shores of the Mediterranean are contacts between Öcalan and the Libyan leader Muammer Qaddafi.
“A news report broadcast by the ‘Radio of the Voice of the Great Arab Nation’ based in Tripoli in Libya, broadcast on 20 June 1995, was follows:
‘In a telegram sent to the brotherly leader of the Revolution (Qaddafi), the General Secretary of PKK Abdullah Öcalan confirmed the full solidarity between the Kurdish people and the Great Jamahiriyah, the cornerstone of the Arab and Islamic liberation movement, which is the victim of a grave imperialist plot. This fraternity facilitates PKK’s cooperation with the rich Kurdish refugee community in Libya.’
“In the meantime, Greeks’ and Greek Cypriots’ relations with PKK should not be forgotten. Because animosity against Turkey is a rule, PKK militants are persona grata in Greece and the Greek part of Cyprus.
PKK’S ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE, BALKANS AND MIDDLE EAST
“Since its foundation, PKK has had two goals of expansion. The first goal is to drag the people in the south-eastern part of Turkey, about which it tries to mislead the world by naming it as ‘Kurdistan under occupation’, into an armed campaign and the second is to pave the way for the settlement of PKK in Europe.
“PKK has, to some extent, attained these goals. In the campaign it launched in Turkey, it murdered ten of thousands of civilian and innocent people in cold blood and became a nightmare for many European countries with 313 associations it began to establish as from the end of 1994. Only in Germany there are 178 associations under the control of PKK that serve as hot-beds of evil.
“Target of PKK’s expansion in Europe was to take the Kurdish refugee community in Europe and those refugees coming and settling from Turkey under its control. The number of this refugee population exceeds 600 thousand of which 400-450 thousand live in Germany. At the outset, PKK set up its main bureaus in Germany legally, under such names as: ‘European Front’, ‘ERNK- European Mission’. Then, following its dissolution in November 1993, it continued its activities illegally. According to the German Foreign Minister, PKK had one thousand active militants in 1978 with ERNK, Kurdish Patriotic Women Association, Youth Organisation, and ‘Security Control and Intelligence Service’. At the time, it had its bureaus in Köln, which was the HQ of the Turkish religious fundamentalists as well, Mainze, Offenburg, Russelsheim, Oltenburg, Dortmund and other cities. As from this point in time, PKK divided Germany into five regions, then into 17 quarters and local areas, appointing a leader at the head of each of these. With the current figures (1997), out of its 50 thousand sympathisers, the PKK has more than seven thousand active militants in Germany, making up 10 per cent of the Kurdish community living in Germany. According to a report published by the Internal Security Agency of Germany (Department for the Protection of the German Constitution), PKK obtained 30 million Deutsche Mark in 1994 by way of forcible collection of tributes.
“In France, about 60-100 thousand Turkish nationals of Kurdish origin live in France. Particularly those living in Paris have made it a habit to stage each month, demos against Turkey. Though PKK’s organisation in France was banned in 1993, PKK pursues its activities behind false associations. The associations serving to cover up PKK activities in France are: Committee for Kurdistan, YEK-KOM, Kurdistan Information Centre and the National Solidarity Committee for Kurdistan. It is said that there are about one thousand active militants and five active sympathisers of PKK in France.
“About 10 thousand Kurds live in Sweden. The number of those living in Holland is 40 thousand. The number of those living in Belgium, Denmark, and Switzerland is considerably high. In London, PKK has 700-800 militants and active sympathisers. According to a report drawn up by the British National Crime Intelligence Organisation, dated February 1994, the sum total of tributes collected from the Kurdish community in Britain for the year 1993 was about 15 million St. pounds.
“PKK has also included the Turkish workers of Kurdish origin, working in Saudi Arabia, within its tribute-collection operations. There are 130-150 thousand workers in Saudi Arabia who have come from Turkey, out of whom 30 thousand are under PKK’s control. According to a local police source, they are also involved in drug-trafficking in the Arabian Peninsula. It is reported that PKK obtains $20 m. per annum from this country through trade of illegal drugs and the collection of tributes.
“Taking the opportunity of the collapse of the walls between the West and the East, PKK is now trying to find a place for itself in Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine who have now boundaries at the Black and are thus close to Turkey.
“A Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)- Kurdish Federation was founded in November 1994. HQ of this group, which is close to the ‘Kurdish National Liberation Struggle’ group, as well as PKK, is in Moscow. The number of the Kurds living in Moscow is about 10 thousand, who, among other things, publish a newspaper called the ‘Kurdish Report’. Their leader Yuri Nabiev states that it is the common responsibility of the Russians and the Kurds to prevent the Turks from expanding their sphere of influence in the Central Asia.
“In a statement he issued in November 1994, Yuri Nabiev said: ‘We do not regard Abdullah Öcalan and his militants as terrorists and will continue to maintain our ties with them’. In February 1995, PKK opened a bureau in Moscow and right after this asked President Yeltsin to act as a mediator between the Turks and the Kurds from Turkey.
“Kurds of CIS are very close to the Armenians. In summer 1992, they established the ‘Armenian Action’ at PKK’s branch in Germany at Krasnodar, with the initiative of the Kurdish leaders in the former Soviet Union. The purpose of this organisation was not only to assist Armenia but also help PKK to get settled in Yerevan, thus establishing a base from where attacks on Turkey could be organised.
“PKK has been organised in Kazakhstan as well, especially in Alma-Ata and surroundings. There are about 150-200 thousand Kurds, who had come and been settled here upon Stalin’s instruction of deportation and who are currently living in this former Soviet republic. PKK ‘missionaries’ came to Kazakhstan at the end of 1992 and recruited members from amongst the Turkish-speaking population. Ever since, PKK has been distributing leaflets in Alma-Ata and forcing the Kurdish shop-keepers to pay tributes. PKK teams have also taken over the used-car markets here. Within this framework, it re-sells the (stolen) cars here, it has imported from Europe and the Middle East.
PKK’S DRUG-TRAFFICKING
“Charges brought against PKK regarding drug-trafficking are very serious. PKK leaders strongly deny accusations of drug-trafficking and do not refrain from employing terrifying tactics of violence (material damage, physical damage, threats etc.) against the European media organs so as to prevent them from reporting on the issue.
“INTERPOL, British NCIS, and EU police have found out that drug-trafficking in Europe are being nurtured and directed by the “Turkish-Kurdish revolutionaries” or separatists. Finally speaking, though it is easy to say that PKK deals with drug-trafficking, there is an undeniable exchange of interests between Öcalan and the Kurdish groups that are reminiscent of the Mafia families in Sicily. The biological, political and criminal ties between these groups and PKK are so close that it is not possible to pull them apart.
“It has been found out that two-third of 982 kg of heroin seized by the German police in the first half of 1994 was Kurdish (PKK)-linked.
“According to the information gathered by the bureaus of INTERPOL, 315 “Revolutionary Militants” or “separatists” of Turkish citizenship were involved in drug-trafficking in the period of 1984-1993. According to the police reports, it has been discovered that out of the 298 people constituting 94.6 per cent of those arrested, were PKK militants and the rest were linked with terror groups such as TKP—ML, DEV-SOL, THKP—C, etc.
“Out of the arrested PKK militants, 154 were arrested in Germany, 82 in Turkey, 17 in Holland, 12 in the Czech Republic, eight in France, seven in Italy, five in Great Britain, three in Belgium, three in Spain, three in Switzerland, two in Denmark and two in Portugal. In the meantime, the German police estimate that the ‘Kurdish families’ who have committed political and ordinary offences obtain $120 m. per annum from drug-smuggling.
“Dimensions of the political and criminal offences, carried out by the Kurdish separatists with the Shiite tribes in the Beq’aa Valley in Lebanon or the insurgent tribes of Belujistan depend on contacts. PKK militants in Iran play a significant role in this process.
“When we pass to Syria and Lebanon, this traffic takes the form of a triangle. Within this framework, cars stolen from in Europe, particularly in Germany, are exchanged in the Middle East for heroin which may be converted either into money or arms, depending on the need. While the German police was receiving the deposition of the person they arrested, named Nurettin Se…, the latter explained the internal order of this criminal network. Similar cases of smuggling that extends up to PKK are also present in Turkey, Nahcevan and Iran.
“After the interrogation on 17 March 1994 by the judiciary police, of three persons holding Turkish citizenship, identified as members of a network of drug-smuggling, the police drew up a report entitled, “The Seizure of Three Kilograms of Heroin”, narrating the incident as follows:
‘One day before, three persons were brought under custody in Saint-Quen and Paris. Musa Ca….Born in 1956 in Akçadað in Turkey, unemployed, a political refugee; Mehmet Se….Born in 1963 in Bingöl in Turkey, unemployed; Orhan Ta…..Born in 1963, unemployed, political refugee. Orhan Ta… was carrying a packet of three kilograms of heroin, placed in one-kilo packets brought to him from Metz. Information obtained from the General Intelligence is to the effect that Orhan Ta…is a person who collects tributes and is involved drug-smuggling so as to raise funds for the terror group.’
“Militants of PKK organisation who arrive in Germany from Turkey use children of 11-13 years of age as street sellers, taking the advantage of the laxity of laws about the children offenders. Most of these children coming from Bingöl sell 5-gram heroin packets for DM 250. In the meantime, prosecutor of Frankfurt Dr Harold Korner said, ‘Certain claiming to have been waging a liberation war against Turkey are involved in drug-smuggling on behalf of PKK.’
“According to an alarm given by INTERPOL on 26 October 1993, the ‘Baybaþin tribe’ had been carrying out a large-scale heroin smuggling operation amongst Turkey, Germany, Holland, Italy and Spain and been laundering a great amount of dirty money in Europe. The chief of the Baybaþin tribe Hüseyin Baybaþin (born in 1956 in Lice) was caught in Istanbul in 1976 with 11 kilograms of heroin in his possession; later, he was caught in 1984, with six kilos of heroin in 1984 in England and was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment. Another member of the tribe is Mehmet Emin Baybaþin (born in 1942 in Lice), Hüseyin’s uncle. Mehmet Emin was being wanted in connection with a lab at Yaðmurlu village near Lice, in which the police found 67 kilos of heroin in November 1994. Nedim Baybaþin (born in 1965 in Lice), Mehmet Emin’s son and Hüseyin’s cousin, as well as Mehmet Þerif Baybaþin (born in 1944 in Lice), another family member, were caught in Germany with 32 kilos of heroin in Germany. Mehmet Emin and Mehmet Þerif have very close ties with PKK. Mehmet Þerif Baybaþin is searched by the German police as one of the arms smugglers of PKK. About 12 persons from the Baybaþin Tribe have criminal files in some European countries.
“It is known that PKK has very close relations with those tribes that may be classified as groups of organised crime. These criminal groups are reminiscent of the Mafia-families in Sicily. There is about a dozen of them who have an opaque texture, knitted by ties of a traditional uprising against the state and crime. Some of these tribes buy one kilo of heroin for 15 thousand French Francs and sell them at 800 thousand in Europe. It has been found out that these tribes that have the control of drug-trafficking in their hands have relations with PKK.
PKK’S FRIENDS IN EUROPE
“Incidents that are recorded in this research, based on the information provided by the Security and Intelligence Units, show quite clearly that those European political parties or newspapers to which PKK tries to approach should be very careful. Judges in Europe are already aware how dangerous can Abdullah Öcalan’s party can become. Certain PKK militants were summoned to a court in Paris in charge of certain breaches of laws .On their part, the judges agreed that PKK is ‘a dangerous organised group’ waging an armed campaign in Turkey, committing acts of violence against the Turkish diplomats particularly in France and decided to shut down YEK-KOM and Committee for Kurdistan in November 1993.
“This decision was prompted in the wake of the fact that the members of the two groups were given a disciplined training in training camps so that they could be prepared for commando acts. These two bodies are involved in activities that can provoke terrorist acts within France or other countries.
“This is not all what PKK does. In its issue dated 12 November 1992, the ‘Kayhan newspaper, published as an Islamic fundamentalist paper in Iran, wrote that PKK kills its own wounded after armed clashes. A certain Syrian Kurd Hosni, 19, found near peshmerges in Iraq in death bed, gave the following account: ’18 of us were wounded and were unable to walk on. They shot a single bullet in the heads of each other. I was the only survivor..’ Apo’s party employs these methods in Europe as well. In March 1994, Ali K…, 32, and Hasan H.G….,40, were given life sentences in Dusseldorf in March 1994 for strangulating one person with rope and shooting dead another, who had been charged with betraying PKK.
“In spite of all this, PKK still has friends in Europe. In March 1992, certain members of the Greek Socialist Party held a joint press conference with PKK at Beqaa Valley. In April 1994, ERNK opened its ‘Greece and Balkans’ in Athens. During the opening, Deputy Speaker of the Greek Parliament from PASOK and three MPs from the Socialist Party listened to and applauded Abdullah Öcalan’s message read out by PKK’S representative in Europe known as Ali Sapan. In March 1995, the International Socialist Commission was convened in Vienna in March 1995 in order to debate the Kurdish problem in Turkey and Iraq. Among the participants at the round-table were the Socialist party representatives from Germany, Denmark, France, Sweden and Switzerland. According to the joint communique, from the Kurdish side were representatives from DEP, ERNK and KYP leaders under Celal Talabani
being financed until recently by Iran. In June 1995, four MPs from PASOK party paid a visit to Apo, holding a political meeting with him and before the cameras they embraced and kissed each other.”
This report dated June 1996 has been drawn up by:
JEAN-CLAUDE SALOMON (Institute of Higher Studies on Internal Security in France);
FRANCOIS Haut (Criminological Institute in Paris);
JEAN -LUC VANNIER (Secretariat on National Defence in Paris)