Kurdish struggle: European Front

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

From: tabe at newsdesk.aps.nl
Subject: Kurdish struggle: European Front
Reply-To: kurdeng at aps.nl

7 May 1995 21:03:54 -0800

Alleged Kurdish extremist arrested in Germany

BONN, May 16 (Reuter) - A Kurd alleged to have masterminded firebombings of
Turkish property in Germany and the murder of political rivals on behalf of
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has been arrested, authorities said
on Tuesday.

The 36-year-old suspect, identified only as Aziz Y., was taken into custody in
Mainz on Sunday during an underground meeting of PKK members, the federal
prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe said in a statement.

Suspected of leading a PKK chapter in western Germany, the Turkish citizen
whose legal residence is in France helped direct 33 attacks on Turkish banks,
airline offices, travel agencies and restaurants in 1993, prosecutors said.

One person caught in flames died during an attack on a Turkish restaurant
in Wiesbaden on November 4, 1993.

Y, who is being held in investigative custody, belonged to the PKK leadership
in Germany that used arson attacks to press its revolutionary goals, it said.
It alleged that PKK leaders had also used punitive action, including murder,
against adherents who break away from the organisation.

Following a similar rash of arson attacks this year blamed primarily on the
PKK, German officials have been increasingly concerned that the group had
imported its campaign of political violence to Germany, unsettling the two
million Turks there.