Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Turkey: HPG claimed the attack in Samsun



The Defense Regions of Medya- Kurdistan: The People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the armed wing of the Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK), claimed the attack in Samsun, of earlier this week. In this attack two police officers were killed.“The attack was a response to the attacks against our people and the continued operations in Dersim (Tunceli), Cudi and Gabar against our fighters. We have taken this action for all killed fighters,” a HPG spokesperson said.He also indicated that they didn’t order the action and it was carried out by a guerrilla unit on its own initiative and wasn’t related to the recent attack against the Kurdish leader Ahmet Türk in the same province.On the evening of 17 April 2010, three persons shot at a police car in the Turkish municipality of Ladik in the province of Samsum. Two officers were killed, while two were heavily wounded. The Turkish media reported that the PKK conducted the attack. The Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) was founded in 1973 as the result of the continuous and systematic oppressions and the denial of the Kurdish nation by the occupying powers of Kurdistan. The PKK took up arm in 1984 since all the possible political and diplomatic means applied for 11 years in between 1973-84 proved exhausted. The PKK however declared its first unilateral ceasefire in 1993 since it believed the arm struggle hit its targets. Since 1993 to date the PKK has declared unilateral ceasefires in 6 different occasions and called upon Ankara to solve the Kurdish problem in a peaceful democratic procedure.Despite the facts that the PKK has declared 6 unilateral ceasefires and also it sent peace groups in two different occasions yet the PKK is considered as a 'terrorist' organization by Ankara and the US. It also continues to be on the blacklist in EU despite the court ruling, which overturned the decision to place the Kurdish freedom movement on the EU's terror list “By labelling PKK as a terrorist organisation, the EU and the US are giving the Turkey a green light to target its civilians. They give the Turkish government a free hand to do what it will, a mother of Kurdish martyr said”.It should be noted that after 1954, apart from the Korean war, 1949-52 and the invasion of Cyprus, 1974, the Turkish Army operations have continued to be exclusively against the Kurds.