Terrorist list must include PKK, says Ankara

Date: 17/01/02

ANKARA is expected to push for two armed groups to be added to the EU's list of terrorist organisations when it holds talks with Union representatives in Brussels next week.

Bülent Ecevit's government has protested to all member states over the omission of the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) and Revolutionary People's Liberation Front (DHKC) from the list, published by the Council of Ministers in late December.

Unhappy with the response it has received so far from several states, Akin Alptuna, deputy undersecretary at Ankara's foreign ministry, is expected to renew calls for their inclusion on the terror list at Thursday's (24 January) meeting of the Turkish-EU association committee.

Turkish officials have named Italy, the Netherlands and Germany as especially unreceptive to demands that the two groups should be added to the 13 organisations that the EU officially considers as terrorist. 'We hope that they will change their mind in due course,' said one Turkish diplomat. 'It's a very delicate and sensitive issue. In some of these countries, there isn't 100 agreement between security and foreign affairs departments [on what the groups should be labelled].'

But Belgian-based supporters of the DHKC have recently circulated a letter among the main EU institutions, which blames Turkey's human rights record - including the detention of 1.7 million people between 1995 and 2001 - for politically-motivated violence in the country.

'We are patriots and revolutionaries who struggle against a fascist regime that terrorises its own people,' the letter contends. 'Violence is an historic, scientific and social reality and did not appear without any reason. If people are using violence for freedom and justice, this is because they were left no other way.'

Israel is also uneasy that Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were not on the list.

An Israeli government aide said there could be 'no other definition' than terrorist of the PFLP, which assassinated Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in October. While the official accepted that Hezbollah is a political organisation as well as having an armed wing, he argued that at least the latter should have been placed on the list.

Such a distinction has been made over Islamic group, Hamas. Its military wing, Hamas-Izz al-Din al-Qassem is defined as terrorist by the EU, although the entire organisation is not. 'If the EU wanted to be this precise, then it could have done the same thing with Hezbollah as it did with Hamas,' the official said.

Turkish offcials are expected to push for the Kurdish Worker's Party and the Revolutionary People's Liberation Front to be added to the EU's list of terrorist organisations at a meeting of the Turkish-EU Association Committee on 24 January 2002.