KCK met its demise, police chief claims

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Istanbul Police Chief Çapkın says the rural-urban network of the KCK has been broken down following the recent detentions, in which more than 100 detained. DHA photo

Istanbul Police Chief Hüseyin Çapkın defended yesterday the controversial operations against the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), saying the detentions of hundreds of people around Turkey had struck a blow to the alleged urban terrorist network.

“The rural-urban network of the KCK has been broken down. The KCK has now met its demise,” Çapkın told daily Akşam in reference to the latest KCK raids Feb. 13.

Law enforcement officials took 149 people into custody Feb. 13 during the fifth major operation launched against the KCK since April 2009. The Ankara Police Department planned the operations against the KCK, which then spread to 28 provinces across the country under the supervision of the Istanbul Anti-Terror Branch Department.

The latest KCK operations were aimed at severing the links of communication between the KCK and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) located in the mountains of northern Iraq, according to reports.

The operations of Feb. 13 were also intended to avert the staging of any sensational acts today, the anniversary of the capture of the PKK’s now-jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, by Turkish security forces.
The KCK is the alleged urban wing of the PKK, which is recognized as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.

Meanwhile, some members of the Confederation of Public Sector Unions (KESK) gathered in Istanbul and Ankara to stage a protest rally against the KCK operations. Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Sebahat Tuncel, Ayla Akat Ata and Ertuğrul Kürkçü also attended the demonstration to lend their support. Police raided a number of labor unions in Ankara on Feb. 13 as part of the operation, detaining 15 female union members and managers.