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

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
How credible are Semdin
Sakik's confessions?
de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
• Sakik is dropping names and making incriminating statements
about some prominent personalities which are all over the
newspapers. Should such accusations be taken seriously?
Editorial by Hour Cevik
Are we going to believe the disclosures and incredible accusations of a
top terrorist militant who has fallen out with his organization and has
actually defected?
Semdin Sakik, code-named Fingerless Zeki in the PKK terrorist
organization, seems to be talking his head off to the authorities these
days. Thus it seems it would be more appropriate to give him a new
code name, "Singing Bird."
Who is Semdin Sakik? He is the terrorist leader who has actually led PKK terrorist bands all across the
country, playing havoc with the security forces for more than a decade. He has the blood of too many
innocent Kurds and Turks on his hands.
He fell at odds with PKK terrorist leader Abdullah Ocalan because he feit that while he and his militants
were wreaking havoc in eastern and southeastern Turkey, Ocalan was living in safety in Syria giving out
orders like a monarch.
After Sakik and his brother Arif were brought back to Turkey and were questioned by the authorities it
became apparent that they would spill the beans about the PKK and its connections both inside Turkey and
abroad.
Now we see the "revelations" of Semdin all over the newspapers. He is accusing Ocalan of incompetency
as well as of being a womanizer who took advantage of the young girls who were lured to the PKK.
All these are well-known facts. It is no secret that the PKK is a terrorist organization bent on setting up a
Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey. It is no secret that the PKK has tried to exploit the justified
dissatisfactions of the people living in southeastern Turkey and to attract sympathy for its goals. It is also
no secret that the PKK has supporters both at home and abroad.
The fact that the PKK is being given material and moral support by some of our neighboring states who
want to undermine our country is also no secret. The support given to the PKK by Greece is so well
documented that this has been the subject of a highly damaging report in Time Magazine. The fact that
Ocalan lives in Syria and in the Syrian-controlled areas of Lebanon is yet another well-established issue
which the Damascus government pretends to ignore. Many of our neighbors have tried to use the PKK
card against us at some time of another.
At home, some organizations and persons support the PKK. Some publications have openly backed PKK
terrorist actions. However, Semdin Sakik is now making revelations which are rather shattering. He claims
some prominent journalists and human rights activists are on the PKK payroll.
We feel these claims should be regarded with great reservations. It is easy to smear people but it is not easy
to erase the damage. Such claims also cast a shadow on the important revelations that Semdin may make
about the PKK because they undermine the credibility of his confessions. Some independent observers in
the West already feel the authorities are using Semdin to ruin the credibility of some prominent personalities
III Turkey ...
W\: ~hlluld not play with the dignity and honor of people through the statements of a self-confessed
terrorist. If such things are to be revealed to the press, we feel the authorities should be very careful on
how much and what is made available to the newspapers.
Semdin Sakik will be brought to trial. What he says during his hearings should be more important than
what is being leaked to the press as his confessions ...
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