A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, August 30, 2017
PKK confirms capture of two Turkish spies in Iraq
Capture of two MIT operatives led to the expulsion of Iraqi Kurdish official from Ankara on Friday
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters greet their comrades as they arrive in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk (AFP)
Alex MacDonald-Monday 28 August 2017
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Monday publicly confirmed the
capture of two Turkish secret service officers in Iraq last week.
Diyar Xerib, a leading member of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) -
a PKK-affiliated transnational body - told a local news channel in Iraq
that they had captured the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT)
officers, but were not divulging their identities yet.
“Turkey should be glad we haven’t shown the people we captured in the media yet," he told the Rojnews channel.
"We could just parade them to the press now and publish their names.”
The incident caused a furore last week - according to reports by the NRT
news channel, the two MIT officers had been staying in the city of
Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan and had been planning to assassinate a
senior PKK leader.
Turkey and the PKK have been engaged in a decades long guerilla war
which has seen more than 40,000 killed. Throughout, the PKK have
maintained headquarters in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq, which
has regularly been the target of Turkish military operations.
However, the MIT operation in Sulemaniyah appears to have been botched,
with reports on Friday alleging the officials had instead been captured.
The controversy led to Turkey to expel Behroz Galali, the Ankara
representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a centre-left
Iraqi Kurdish party whose stronghold is in Sulaymaniyah.
Although the PUK are seen as being somewhat closer to the PKK than Iraqi
Kurdistan's ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Xerib said that
there was some confusion as to why they had been implicated.
“Many people are asking why Turkey did such a thing," he said. "They
question the reasons behind it...these questions need to be answered and
the issue needs to be brought into light.”
He also scolded the PUK for appearing to place the blame for the
controversy on the PKK and warned them against becoming an "operational
force of the Turkish state."
"The PKK could put these MIT operatives who wanted to turn Sulaymaniyah
into a city of chaos and the center of terror attacks against PKK
administrators in front of the cameras," he warned.
"The reason the PKK hasn’t done so is that they don’t want to make the people of Sulemaniyah and the PUK look guilty."
The PUK said on Thursday that it had not been informed about the MIT operation, however, and warned that Turkey did "not have the right to conduct operations in another country."
Galali left Turkey on Thursday with his family in tow after he was
informed by the Turkish government that the Ankara office of the PUK was
to close.
Speaking to a news conference upon his arrival in Iraqi Kurdistan,
Galali implied that the closure of the office was linked to Ankara's
opposition to an upcoming referendum on Kurdish independence set for 25
September.
"Turkey is concerned over the PUK's security institutions and that caused the office to be closed [in Ankara]," Galali said.
"Turkey opposes the referendum and it is certain it won't be held on September 25."
Continued our contacts by meeting w/ Qubad Talabani, Deputy Prime Minister of #KRG & Sadi Pire, member of PUK Politburo.
The incident came at the same time Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu was in the KRG capital of Erbil on a visit to meet, among
others, Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, who is a PUK member.
Turkey and the KRG enjoy good relations and have strong international trade links.
However, tensions have risen since the announcement of the independence
referendum, which Turkey fears could inflame nationalist aspirations
among its own restive Kurdish minority.