Countries Unite In Swoop On Turkish Terrorist Suspects

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 4-2-2004 | Amberin Zaman/Bruce Johnston

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Countries unite in swoop on Turkish terrorists

By Amberin Zaman in Ankara and Bruce Johnston in Rome
(Filed: 02/04/2004)

Dozens of suspected members of a far-Left Turkish terrorist group - including two reported to be linked to plans for suicide attacks - were arrested yesterday in co-ordinated dawn raids across Europe.

Italian police arrested five Turkish terror suspects

Police in Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium took at least 49 suspected extremists belonging to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) into custody amid fears that they were planning a wave of attacks on western businessmen and diplomats.

Turkish interior ministry officials said 38 arrests were made in Istanbul, where a guerrilla faction of the group is based.

It was blamed for the murder of 14 Americans between 1979 and 1991 and has made rocket attacks on the US air base at Incirlik and America's consulate in Istanbul.

While there is no apparent link between the group and Islamic terrorists in Turkey, the country's NTV news channel claimed that two of the arrested men had planned suicide bombings at polling stations during local elections held on Sunday.

Five alleged members of an alleged "high-level" DHKP-C cell were held in Perugia, central Italy. Police said they had arrested two Turks and three Italians.

One of the Italian detainees was named as Moreno Pasquinelli, the leader of a Marxist-Leninist group called the Anti-Imperialist Camp.

Pasquinelli, a former chef, drew anger in Italy last year when he announced that he was collecting donations for the "Iraqi Resistance Army" as the country mourned 19 Italian soldiers killed in a bomb attack in Nasiriyah.

Nicola Miriano, Perugia's prosecuting magistrate, said the arrests followed an 18-month investigation involving 56,000 hours of wiretapped telephone calls and 5,000 hours of electronic eavesdropping.