General Buyukanit warns on Yuksekova incidents

Hurriyet; Thursday, December 01, 2005 15:09
The Commander of the Turkish Armed Land Forces, General Yasar Buyukanit, speaking at a reception for Northern Cyprus yesterday, touched on recent PKK-linked unrest near Turkey's southeastern city of Hakkari. Said Buyukanit, "Now we are seeing incidents occur in Yuksekova. Pay close attention to these incidents, analyze them well. The police and security forces were attacked, and firearms were used against them. There were injuries. I recommend that we all be very clear on what is happening."

Speaking about the Semdinli incidents of last week, General Buyukanit at first said only "The subject has been passed on to the justice system. I cannot comment anymore on it." When reporters pressed for more comments, Buyukanit said "You have to analyze well what has happened in Semdinli, what has happened in Van, what has happened in
Van, and now what has happened in Yuksekova. It is all being broadcast live on television. You see everything, you can analyze it yourselves." Strong support for Erdogan's actions in Denmark General Buyukanit also voiced strong support for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's surprise departure from a Danish press conference following the revelation that Kurdish Roj TV reporters had been allowed into the
press corps: "The Prime Minister's reaction was natural, after all, Roj TV is PKK television. It is of course completely unacceptable that a PKK reporter be allowed to attend a press conference with the prime minister of a country which is fighting against the PKK. So his reaction was completely normal."