The US financial sanctions targeting three senior leaders of the PKK, also known as Kongra-Gel, after designating them narcotics traffickers came on Wednesday.
Turkey has been stating that drug trade is one of the most important sources of finance for the PKK -- which is designated as a terrorist organization by a large majority of the international community -- Erdoğan recalled when invited to comment on the US decision at a press conference ahead of his departure for an official visit to Baghdad.
“The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control [OFAC] today [Wednesday] targeted the senior leadership of Kongra-Gel, designating as significant foreign narcotics traffickers, Murat Karayılan, the head of Kongra-Gel, and high-ranking members Ali Rıza Altun and Zübeyir Aydar. Formally known as the PKK, Kongra-Gel was named by the president as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act [Kingpin Act] on May 30, 2008. … Pursuant to the Kingpin Act, today's designation freezes any assets the three designees may have under US jurisdiction and prohibits US persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions with these individuals,” said a statement by the US Department of the Treasury.
“It's important that the US administration showed that these [financial resources] have a leg in America. But they also have a leg in Europe which is much stronger,” Erdoğan said, voicing disappointment over European countries' inaction on the same issue, despite Turkey's efforts to explain the gravity of the problem. “We hope our European friends eventually notice this mistake and take the necessary steps,” he added.
The European Union considers the PKK to be a terrorist organization, but Turkey frequently complains that it does not receive enough support from European countries in its fight against the PKK. A US report on terrorism last year said the PKK was supported financially and through propaganda in Europe. “The group maintains a large extortion, fundraising and propaganda network in Europe,” said the US State Department's report, released in April 2008. “We will continue to aggressively track and expose Kongra-Gel's financial network to disrupt its trafficking activities,” OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin, meanwhile, said.
