German intel shows PKK recruits freely: Turkish deputy

By Hatice Ozdemir

ANKARA (AA) – German intelligence reports show that the PKK can freely recruit for militants in the country even though the group is recognized as a terrorist organization, charged a senior Turkish lawmaker Wednesday.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Mustafa Yeneroglu, the head of Parliament’s Human Rights Inquiry Committee, said they have obtained German domestic intelligence reports clearly demonstrating that the PKK is recruiting and racketeering in the country for terrorism, and bringing fighters to Turkey and Iraq.

“The PKK is on the list of [banned] terrorist organizations on paper in Germany and Europe, but that's not the truth,” Yeneroglu said, accusing Western countries of failing to properly fight terrorism despite their own intelligence services urging the governments to do so.

Yeneroglu claimed that the PKK can spread terrorist propaganda at will especially in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Austria through daily newspapers that they publish.

“If Germany is honest, [they ought to] read their own intelligence reports. [Then] they will see that PKK is not a banned organization, as it can continue its activities freely like an association that has status of working for the public interest,” he said.

“While people are murdered every day in Turkey, while the terrorist organization continues its bloody actions in our country, the members of the same terrorist organization cannot operate with blessings in Germany,” he added.

When contacted by Anadolu Agency, the German Embassy in Ankara would neither confirm nor deny the contents of the intelligence reports, but said they would contact the German Foreign Ministry.

Yeneroglu stressed that Turkey’s fight against terrorism is being painted abroad as an “ethnic conflict,” adding that the PKK, YPG and PYD have opened stands in some European countries to spread disinformation that they defend Kurds’ rights and issue the call, “Who wants to fight for PKK in Turkey?” to recruit militants.

Yeneroglu also stated that PKK and its supporters have been attacking places abroad where the Turkish community lives.

“In recent weeks, nine attacks were launched against the Turkish Democratic Union [branches in Germany]. Their rooms were burned with Molotov cocktails and people were targeted. Coffee shops and mosques were attacked.

“There has been a very serious rise in the complaints received from our citizens abroad regarding the terrorist organization,” he said.

*Ilker Girit in Istanbul contributed to this story.