Syrian government allows terrorist PKK to raise its flag in Syrian town

The PKK has hoisted the flag in the Syrian town of Ayn-al Arab, close to Mürşitpınar village in Şanlıurfa’s Suruç district. The 15-meter-high flag, raised on a hill, is visible with the naked eye from Turkey.

There is a Syrian flag flying 200 meters away from the Kurdistan flag.

One resident of Mürşitpınar, N.Y., says that it is nothing less insolence towards Turkey for the flag to be flown on the highest hill in the region.

“From the outbreak of popular unrest in Syria we have already known that the terrorist organization was very close to us. But is not the flying of a PKK flag on the highest hill in the region with the support of the Syrian regime an act of defiance against Turkey?” said N.Y.

According to information gleaned from relatives on the other side of the border, N.Y. says the PKK has opened a school in Ayn-al Arab and is providing ideological instruction to the students there in order to raise them as PKK militants. He said going out at nights is forbidden in Ayn-al Arab and that the PKK has the full control over the area.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and US, has been waging a bloody campaign in Turkey’s Southeast since 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the decades-long conflict to date. A military officer in Mürşitpınar, who asked not to be named, told Today’s Zaman that more than half of the PKK terrorists from the Kandil Mountains in Northern Iraq carry out acts of violence in Turkey by stationing themselves at the Syrian border.

Until 1998, PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was based in Syria. As the situation deteriorated in Turkey, the Turkish government openly threatened Syria over its support for the PKK. As a result of this, the Syrian government forced Öcalan to leave the country, but did not turn him over to Turkish authorities. Öcalan fled to Russia.

According to security reports, terrorists who carried out an attack in the central province of Kayseri last month, killing two policemen and injuring 17 people, infiltrated Turkey from Syrian soil.

In addition to this, a PKK terrorist who was captured following an attack on the Yeşiltaş military post on June 19 that killed eight Turkish soldiers confessed that the goal of the PKK in this attack was to take control of the military base and then to raise a flag in the region.

35 KCK suspects, including KESK head, referred to court

As part of an investigation against the urban branch of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization encompassing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and related organizations, 35 suspects, including officials from various unions including the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) head who were detained by police in operations taking place in a number of provinces on Tuesday, were referred to the Ankara Courthouse on Wednesday.

On Tuesday seventy-one members of various unions were detained on charges of membership of a terrorist organization or abetting such an organization. The Ankara Police Department counterterrorism units raided KESK headquarters, the Education Personnel Union (Eğitim-Sen), the Media and Communication Workers Union (Haber-Sen), the Trade Union of Public Employees in Health and Social Services (SES), the All Municipal and Local Administration Workers Union (TÜM BEL-SEN) and unions such as ESM and Public Workers Union of Agriculture, Forest, Environment and Animal Husbandry (Tarım Orkam-Sen) in Ankara.

KESK members and other unions staged a protest against detentions in front of the Ankara courthouse and clashed with police. İstanbul Today’s Zaman