Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASlN ÖZETi
Saturday, August 14,1993 turkish daily news
PKK: Number one in narcotics smuggling
Turkish Daily News
ANKARA- Sources close to Belgian Interpol, relying on
an Interpol report, stated .that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) was mentioned more freguently each day
for involvement in international heroin and cocaine smuggling,
the Anatolia news agency reported on Friday.
The report stated that about 25 tons of heroin per year is
smuggled into the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, adding
that only 5 or 10 percent of this amount is ever seized.
One hundred nineteen Xurds holding. Turkish passports have
been arrested since 1992 in western Europe, security officials
said, adding that there was evidence that those arrested
worked for the PKK.
The Interpol report explains that the PKK was not only
involved in smuggling heroin and cocaine, but was also extorting
money fro~ Tur~sh busin.essme~ and companies in
western Euro~ countnes. Turkish busmesses have asked'
security offiCiais for protection. In Belgium, 10 PKK memo
bers were arrested for extortion. .
Interpol said that most of the money earned from the drug
trafficking was used to buy weapons, adding that the PKK
also invested money in other illegal activities.
Sources stated that the PKK partnered with Colombian
cocaine smugglers after' establishing Turkish companies in
former East bloc countries.
The cocaine was sent from Colombia to Baltic seaports in
Poland, and then transferred to Turkish licensed trucks in
the Czech and Slovak republics. These same trucks have also
delivered cocaine from Germany to other European countries.
The report points out that the PKK, with its established
companies in Europe, uses a route through the Balkans,
crossing Hungary and Bulgaria.
Interpolhas received evidence in recent months linking
the PKK and Colombian mafia in drug smuggling operations,
stating that 93 ~rcent of the narcotics traffic was under
PKK control. OffiCiaIs stated that a huge amount of money,
earned from heroin smuggling, has been transferred from
Belgian banks to banks in Turl(ey.
Interpol reports indicated that more than 200 Turks were
arrested for heroin smuggling in European Community (EC)
countries, adding that most of them came from the Southe- .
astern area of Turkey.
No news of missing journalist
Turkish Daily News
ANKARA. Administrators of the
pro-Kurdish Özgür Gündem newspaper
and Turkish human rights activists
are worried that one of the newspaper's
correspondents, reported missing nine
days ago, may have been kidnapped by
security forces and could be dead.
Aysel Malkaç disappeared last week
after walking out of the newspaper's
bureau in Istanbul and has not been heard
from since.
The newspaper's editor-in-chief,
GurbeteIli Ersöz, spoke to the deputy
governor of Istanbul, who rejects the
theory that Malkaç was detained by
plainclothes policemen, a theory reported
in Gündem.
Meanwhile, the London-based orga-
• Friends fear Malkaç
may have been killed
nization, Amnesty International, and
the watchdog group, International
PEN, have shown interest in the issue
and have asked for information on
Malkaç's disappearance as well as the
killing of journalist Ferhat Tepe this
week. Tepe, a Bitlis correspondent for
the same newspaper, was abducted
earlier this' month and was found dead
in neighboring Elazll province. The
newspaper has said he was tortured. A
brief autopsy showed that he drowned.
Tepe's father, Ishak, claimed earlier
that after the abduction, the commander
of the armored division in Tatvan
çalled him and demanded one billion
liras. A statement issued on behalf of
the illegal Turkish-Ottoman Revenge
Regiment, an anti-Kurd extremist organization,
claimed responsibility for
the abduction and demanded, in exchange
for Tepe's release, the release of
four French tourists held by Kurdish
separatists. The tourists have since been
freed. Locals believe the organization
is nothing more than a smoke-screen
for local security forces, accused in
the .past of acting like death squads
using the cover of the Kurdish Hezbollah
organization.
Induding Tepe, a total of 14 pro-
Kurdish journahsts have been killed in
Turkey since a coalition led by the
True Path Party (DYP) took office after
the October 1991 elections.
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