Europe cracking down on PKK, Turkish FM says

ANKARA

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

A number of key European countries are cracking down on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said.

“In several countries that are important to [the PKK’s] activities, including Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Spain, various operations have been conducted against its financing and recruiting efforts, resulting in the arrest of many PKK members,” Çavuşoğlu said, replying to a written question by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy Özcan Yeniçeri.

The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Some observers have recently suggested that it could be removed from the blacklist following the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which the PKK is fighting against in Syria.

However, Çavuşoğlu said legal procedures against a number of PKK members in Europe were ongoing. “This process is being carefully observed by our ministry,” he added.