PKK by any other name is still a terrorist group, US says

AFP ^ | 11/15/2003 | N/A

[a_Turk]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States vowed that an outlawed Kurdish rebel group would not be able to escape US terrorism sanctions by changing its name yet again in an apparent attempt to defy its blacklisting.

The State Department said this week's decision by the Turkish Congress for Democracy and Freedom in Kurdistan (KADEK), which had already changed its name from the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), to rename itself the Kurdistan People's Congress would make no difference in US policy.

"Through its recent actions, the (PKK/KADEK) appears to be making an effort to evade responsibility for its terrorist acts by changing its name," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said in a statement.

"The PKK/KADEK, under any alias, is a terrorist organization, and no name change or press release can alter that fact," he said.

On Tuesday in Iraq (news - web sites) the group, which has waged a 15-year separatist war on Ankara, announced that it was disbanding in order to set up a more democratic Kurdish organization.

But Turkish officials and observers quickly dismissed the group's move as a tactic to shrug off their violent image and ward off a possible US clampdown on their bases in northern Iraq.

Ereli said the US-led military forces in Iraq would not tolerate the presence of the group in any incarnation.

"The Coalition in Iraq will treat the PKK/KADEK or the Kurdistan People's Congress as terrorists; its leaders are subject to arrest," he said. "All legitimate Iraqi parties have condemned terrorism and emphasize that Iraq can no longer provide a base for terrorism.

"There is no place for terrorism or terrorist organizations in the new Iraq," Ereli said.

Turkey holds the PKK responsible for the death of some 36,500 people, many of them rebels, killed in fighting since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.

[a_Turk]

The president of the newly renamed People's Congress of Kurdistan (KONGRA-GEL) Zubeyir Aydar attends a press conference November 15, 2003 held in the mountains of northern Iraq (news - web sites). A Turkish Kurd rebel group, fighting for home rule in southeastern Turkey, said on Saturday it hoped to continue its struggle by political means but would not dissolve its armed wing. The group, known until 2002 as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and then as the Congress for Freedom and Democracy in Kurdistan (KADEK), said last week it was disbanding to be replaced by a broader body that would seek a peaceful solution. REUTERS/Akram Saleh

[Destro]

and Turkey can't escape its nature by calling itself a modern secualr state.

And just as the PKK's flag is a communist design, Turkey's is an Islamic one. Terrorists of a different stripe.

[a_Turk]

LOL! What a kook!!

[Destro]

and Turkey can't escape its nature by calling itself a modern secualr state.

And just as the PKK's flag is a communist design, Turkey's is an Islamic one. Terrorists of a different stripe.

Line from The Turkish National Anthem:

"Oh coy crescent do not frown for I am ready to sacrifice myself for you!"

[Destro]

"Oh coy crescent do not frown for I am ready to sacrifice myself for you!"

Muslims and their sacrifices to the Moon God......

[a_Turk]

You silly little man..

[LibKill]

I happen to know some Turks. Including a Kurd.

Good men, hard-working, smart. Most of them are computer guys and one is a serious scientist.

Anyway, any group that has a communist hammer-and-sickle on its flag is highly suspect in my mind.

[Brian Allen]

<< To: a_Turk


and Turkey can't escape its nature by calling itself a modern secularr state.

And just as the PKK's flag is a communist design, Turkey's is an Islamic one. Terrorists of a different stripe.




2 posted on 11/15/2003 6:42 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorisim by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)


To: Destro


LOL! What a kook!!


3 posted on 11/15/2003 6:44 PM PST by a_Turk (Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light....)


To: a_Turk


and Turkey can't escape its nature by calling itself a modern secular state.

And just as the PKK's flag is a communist design, Turkey's is an Islamic one. Terrorists of a different stripe.



Line from The Turkish National Anthem:

"Oh coy crescent do not frown for I am ready to sacrifice myself for you!"


4 posted on 11/15/2003 6:44 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorisim by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)


To: a_Turk


"Oh coy crescent do not frown for I am ready to sacrifice myself for you!"

Muslims and their sacrifices to the Moon God......


5 posted on 11/15/2003 6:45 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorisim by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)


To: Destro


You silly little man. >>

"Kook?"

"Silly?"

"Little"?

Seems to me he knows you've got him pegged, Colonel Destro.

[Destro]

As is any group with the star and crescent. Also, Kurds are not Turks so you can't "happen to know some Turks. Including a Kurd".

[a_Turk]

I've known lots of Kurds, and never had one single problem.

These terrorists constitute a negligible percentage of Kurds, they are not representative of the warm, hard working honest Kurd majority by far.

Our neighbor across the street was a Kurd, he happened to be a gun smuggler. But we did like the guy, and especially so after he shot and wounded a thief trying to steal our car which was parked in the street one morning. Woke us up :))

Another Kurd story, when I was about 8 a very wild looking man came to our door asking my mother for work. She asked what he was skilled at, and he replied "everything." So she offered him some landscaping work. We helped him get some gardening tools. His name was Ishak.

A couple of months and the man had landed quite a few lanscaping jobs in the neighborhood, and a year or so later brought his wife and five kids to Istanbul. The gun smuggler across the street had some extra property where he had the new family a house built. I helped with my little toy wheelbarrel.

Both mother and father were illiterate. Today all five children are college educated. The older boys would stay at our house while we went on vacation to guard it from thieves. We're like brothers.

That's some of my experience with Kurds..

[a_Turk]

What will you do for your stars and stripes private Allen?

[LibKill]

Also, Kurds are not Turks so you can't "happen to know some Turks. Including a Kurd".

Not so. I knew the Kurd for more than a year before he told me that he was a Kurd.

That kind of floored me. I asked him if he had any trouble from the Turks. None whatsoever. It seems that he is a Kurd, but also considers himself to be Turkish.

I have an interesting job. I cannot afford to travel the world, but it comes to me. Not bad.

Anyway, prejudice against Kurds (or Turks) is just as stupid as prejudice about skin color.

Let us judge each man and woman for what they say and do.

[a_Turk]

Being Turkish anymore means to be a citizen of Turkey. Just like being an American. There are 43 ethnic groups all citizens of Turkey. Some see it as a sweater that should be unraveled.

[Destro]

So fear of unraveling an artificial state is what made the "Turks" ban the Kurdish language and identity for so long that the Kurds turned into to the PKK?

[LibKill]

There are 43 ethnic groups all citizens of Turkey. Some see it as a sweater that should be unraveled.

We have the same problem here. DIVERSITY!

The idiots scream 'diversity' when what we really need is a good debate followed by a unified action to address the problem at hand.

If I were given a time-machine with a one-time only use, I would go back to the 19th century and strangle Marx in his crib.

[a_Turk]

The Kurds didn't turn into the PKK, you fact twisting demon. This is a group that found employment under the USSR during the cold war. But you already knew that..

[LibKill]

So fear of unraveling an artificial state is what made the "Turks" ban the Kurdish language and identity for so long that the Kurds turned into to the PKK?

I have enough knowledge of history that I know that in past times the Turkish government denied that that 'Kurds' existed. They were called 'Mountain Turks' or so said the History Channel.

I would like to know what your particular complaint is.

All of the Turks I have met were very nice people.

I do have an open mind, but any argument you make about this subject would have more importance if you provided links to fair and impartial websites.

[Destro]

Marxisim is like a cancer-it forms in an unhealthy state.

[a_Turk]

Tell the dems, if that's really a fact.

[a_Turk]

His family was part of the Greek movement in Ottoman Turkey to add western Anatolia to Greece, a "dream" which still exists as "Greater Greece."

When they failed they had to leave in a hurry.

Destro has been raised on sour grapes all his life. A sad man..