Turkey Says Kurdish MPs Caught Red-Handed, Preferred Death
For its Captured Soldiers
Mon Nov 5, 2007
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The presence of pro-Kurdish
parliamentarians at the release by Kurdish rebels of eight Turkish soldiers
proves their party has links to the Kurdish guerrillas, Turkey's Deputy Prime
Minister Cemil Cicek said on Monday.
NTV television said an Ankara prosecutor had launched a probe into the presence
of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputies in Iraqi Kurdistan, where the
soldiers were handed over by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas on Sunday.
The three DTP lawmakers had gone to Iraqi Kurdistan to help secure the release
of the soldiers, who were captured in an ambush last month. They were handed
over to Kurdish officials before being sent back to Turkey.
"They were caught red-handed," Cicek said of the three MPs in an interview with
CNN Turk television.
"There is something that cannot be ignored in the footage from yesterday. It is
very evident who is entwined with the terror group," he said.
Previous pro-Kurdish parties have been closed for links to the Kurdish
guerrillas. The DTP denies any links to the PKK.
The DTP, which has 20 members of parliament, gathers its support from the mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey and Kurdish migrants elsewhere in the country.
In related news, Turkish Zaman reported today that some
Turkish circles including Turkish military have implied that it would have been
more dignified for the eight captured Turkish soldiers to “have died, rather
than be taken hostage by the PKK.” There have also been reports that some of the
soldiers were of Kurdish ethnic background, implicitly suggesting that the
hostage situation was a set-up.
