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Turkey: Protest for Kidnapped Teachers by Terrorists

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protests_for_teachersAs security forces continued operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, two prominent education unions protested Thursday against the PKK’s recent kidnappings of teachers in several cities.

Representatives of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions, or KESK, and the Turkish Education Union, or Türk Eğitim-Sen, held protests in Istanbul, Ankara, Mersin, Zonguldak and Bodrum for the 12 teachers kidnapped by the PKK over the past week.

İsmail Koncuk, chairman of Türk Eğitim-Sen, said through such actions the PKK meant to prove that it was the master of southeastern Turkey.

“It is an embarrassment on behalf of our state, the capacity of which we take pride in, that a teacher, a health worker, or a district governor has been kidnapped on our own soil by a gang,” Koncuk said.

Meanwhile, the Education and Science Personnel Union, or the Eğitim-Sen, also condemned the PKK’s holding teachers captive and issued a call for peace.

“We demand an end to tendencies that eliminate the fundamental rights and freedoms of our teachers,” Eğitim – Sen’s statement said.

Families call for help

The families of three of the kidnapped teachers appealed to the Diyarbakır branch of the Human Rights Association, or the IHD, in the southeast to help mediate the teachers’ release.

“I am asking for help from officials [and] from the Education Ministry. I want my spouse and the other teachers to be released alive. I have two children. My spouse used to reside in the lodgings by himself in the village. We learned of the situation from the district governor as he did not attend the meeting after he was kidnapped. We want their immediate release,” she said.” Remzi Savaş’s wife Vesile Savaş said.

The minister of education also issued a statement Thursday regarding the kidnapping. “Unfortunately, our country is confronted with acts of terror that we deem as crimes against humanity. Everyone ought to know that we will all stand fast, with our teachers in particular, against every kind of dark ambition [or] act of terror that aims to hamper education,” read the statement.

Detentions and charges

As the protests against the PKK continued, nine people were arrested in Siirt, Şırnak and Şanlıurfa for allegedly having connections with the PKK. In another on Thursday, 17 PKK members who entered Turkey from Iraq in 2009 after the government announced a reconciliation initiative were each charged with 20 months in prison for making terrorist propaganda in a press meeting.

Meanwhile, police officer Adem İlkkılıç, who was wounded in an attack by the PKK on Monday, lost his life on Thursday morning.
İlkkılıç’s body was sent to his hometown in Kayseri, and a ceremony was held with 10,000 attendees.

PKK OCCUPIES TV STATION

Some 34 sympathizers of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, broke into the private broadcasting station RTL in Cologne, Germany, on Wednesday evening and were subsequently taken into custody by the German police.

Law-enforcement officials first attempted to negotiate with the group but then took its members into custody by force when they refused to comply. The RTL filed a complaint against the group.

“This assault on the freedom of thought is unacceptable,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said, adding that his country recognized the PKK as a terrorist group. Members of the group handed a petition to RTL employees containing demands regarding the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan.

‘OPERATION IS UP TO ARMY’

Any decision to launch an eventual ground operation against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq will be up to the Turkish military, Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz said Thursday.

“We have submitted to Parliament the motion to extend the mandate [for cross-border operations]. If our security forces say, ‘A cross-border operation is necessary at this point,’ we will do what is necessary,” Yılmaz told reporters.

“The determination of the Republic of Turkey cannot be shaken a bit,” Yılmaz said. “We have to be patient. The fight against terror is difficult and requires a long period of time.”

The government Tuesday submitted a motion to Parliament asking for a one-year renewal of a mandate to order cross-border military action in northern Iraq.

September 29, 2011
SOURCE: Hürriyet Daily News

 

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