Turkish general slams Zana statement
An official investigation has been launched
against Leyla Zana, who said during March 21 Newroz celebrations that Kurds saw
Barzani, Talabani and Ocalan as their leaders.
Mar 27, 2007
WASHINGTON - A
statement by well known activist Leyla Zana that Kurds saw two senior Iraqi
Kurdish politicians and Adbullah Ocalan as their natural leaders was an
invitation to Kurds in Iraq to interfere in Turkey’s domestic affairs, a senior
Turkish general said late Monday.
General Ergin Saygun, the deputy chief of the
Turkish General Staff, said in an interview with television station NTV that by
this statement Zana had invited Iraqi Kurds to intervene in Turkey and that the
state would do what was necessary to prevent this.
On March 21, during an address to crowds in the south eastern Turkish city of
Diyarbakir to mark Nevruz, the traditional festival to celebrate the coming of
spring, Zana said that Massoud Barzani, the head of the semi-autonomous Kurdish
administration in the north of Iraq; Jelal Talabani, Iraqi’s President; and
Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned chief of the terrorist group the PKK were seen
by Kurds as their leaders.
“I see these as very serious and dangerous statements,” Saygun said.
Such a statement made all Turkish citizens look like they were terrorists, the
general said, adding that he believed that citizens would react to the
statement.
He also underlined that Iraq had yet to officially declare the PKK to be a
terrorist organisation.
Earlier Monday, during a meeting of the annual conference of the Turkish
American Council in Washington, General Saygun said that while the PKK was on
the list of terrorist organisations of many countries, the measures taken
against it were weak in practice.
“Some believe that terrorism started with September 11,” he said. “It’s not like
that. Terrorism began a long time ago. You may adopt resolutions against terror,
but what matters is the practice.”
