Number 19 | August 14, 2007
According to Turkish authorities and international news agencies, members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed a villager, Ikram Oner,55, on July 28 in southeast Turkey for refusing to supply the terrorists with food. The attack occurred in the southeastern province of Siirt, near the border with Iraq. Three terrorists came to Oner’s village and demanded food and supplies. When Oner refused, they forcibly took him outside the village and killed him execution style.
The PKK launched its violent terrorist campaign in 1984, since when it has caused the death of more than 30,000.
Attacks on soldiers and civilians have escalated in recent months. The Turkish authorities blame the increase of PKK terrorism on tacit complicity by the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq, where thousands of PKK terrorists have found safe haven to stage cross-border attacks against Turkey. The increase in casualties has also brought pressure from Turkey on the United States, which lists the PKK as an international terror organization. Turkish authorities believe that the United States must do more to deny the PKK shelter in northern Iraq and, responding to public pressure due to the fatal attacks in recent months, consider cross-border operations against Iraq as a self-defense option.
