TURKS DETAIN SUSPECTED KURDISH MILITANTS

CRI, China
April 12 2006

Police raided several homes around the Turkish capital and detained
20 suspected Kurdish militants alleged to be planning a series of
firebomb attacks, the Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday.

The raids follow some of the worst clashes between security forces
and Kurdish protesters in decades, in which 16 civilians have been
killed in the past week.

Kurdish militants have stepped up their attacks on Turkish security
forces, and several soldiers have been killed by land mines blamed
on Kurdish rebels.

A land mine in the southeastern province of Sirnak injured six
children who were playing in a field, and two of them were said to
be in serious condition, NTV television reported Tuesday.

Land mine casualties are common in Turkey’s southeast, where Kurdish
guerrillas fighting for autonomy commonly use them to attack military
targets. Turkey says it has not planted mines since 1998.

A militant Kurdish group called the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons claimed
responsibility Monday for a bomb found by a bus driver after he had
driven prosecutors and judges to work at two courts in Istanbul.

In a message posted on its Web site, the group said the bomb was
a warning to judges and prosecutors to stop acting against Kurdish
militants. It said it would use such bombs in the future if “judicial
terrorism” against Kurds continued.

“Otherwise, our acts of warning will turn into bloody acts,” the
group said.

The group is believed to be linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party, or PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy in the mountainous
southeast since 1984 in a conflict that has killed 37,000 people. The
PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States
and the European Union.

Anti-terrorism police carried out the raids in Ankara early Monday,
Anatolia said. They seized drums filled with gasoline that they
believe would have been used to make firebombs.

Most of those detained were students, the report said.

Meanwhile, a court in Istanbul began hearing a new lawsuit against
the country’s best-known novelist, who was accused of insulting the
Turkish people.

Orhan Pamuk, who gained international acclaim for books including
“Snow,” and “My Name is Red,” is being sued by six lawyers who are
seeking compensation from the writer.

The case against him hinges on comments he made in a Swiss newspaper
last year, stating that “30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were
killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it.”

The remarks highlighted two of the most painful episodes in Turkish
history: the massacre of Armenians during World War I – which Turkey
insists was not a planned genocide – and the more recent fighting
with Kurdish guerrillas.

Also Tuesday, a court dropped charges against four Turkish journalists
accused of insulting the country’s courts, but decided to proceed
with the trial of a fifth journalist.

All five were on trial for criticizing a court’s decision last year
to shut down a conference about the mass killings of Armenians by
Turks during the Ottoman Empire.

The lawsuits are considered a test of Turkey’s readiness for membership
in the European Union. Turkey embarked on membership talks in October,
2005.