Turkey demands extradition of Kurd

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Turkey has demanded that Italy
extradite Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan following his arrest in
Rome.
Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz told a hastily arranged news
conference: ``The most important thing is that the murderer who had
been responsible for the killing of 30,000 people for the last 14
years be stopped. This is the biggest blow on the (Kurdistan Workers
Party) PKK.''  Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed separatist PKK, has
been sought for years by Turkey.
A dropout from Ankara University, Ocalan, 49, lived for at least 10
years in Syria, after fleeing Turkey.
Turkish and Italian officials said Ocalan was arrested Thursday night
at the Rome airport where he arrived by a Russian plane, carrying a
fake Turkish passport.
Ocalan had fled to Russia from Syria last month following pressure
from Turkey threatening to use military force if Damascus did not stop
giving shelter PKK rebels.
The Italian officials arrested Ocalan at the Leonardo da Vinci airport
and then took him to a military hospital after he complained of heart
problems.
The PKK has been fighting a guerrilla war since 1984 in the mainly
Kurdish southeastern areas of Turkey.
Ocalan was on Interpol's red list of most wanted terrorist.  ``We do
not expect any problems with Italy over Ocalan's extradition to
Turkey,'' Defense Minister Ismet Sezgin told reporters.  As the news
of Ocalan's arrest was heard in Ankara, a number of foreign
ambassadors -- including from the United States, Russian and Italy --
visited the Foreign Ministry.

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