THE GREEK CYPRIOT-PKK CONNECTION |
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Prof. Dr. Ata ATUN |
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The Greek Cypriot-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) connection ex-ists not only on a simple level and is not just a tiny connection to a Cypriot passport numbered C015198, valid 1995-2005 and issued to Kurdish terrorist leader Abdullah Öcalan under the fake name Lazaros Mavros. The latter actually is the founder of the Kurdish Solidarity Committee (KSC) in Cyprus.
When Apo — the Kurdish terrorist leader Öcalan — was captured by the Turkish counterterrorism team in Nairobi on Feb. 15, 1999 around 8:00 p.m., he was carrying a Greek Cypriot passport officially issued by the Immigration Office of the Ministry of Interior of the Greek Cypriot administration.
In Nairobi, he was accommodated in the residence of the Greek Embassy and was looked after by Maj. Savvas Kalenderidis of the EIP, the Greek intelligence agency.
Despite the Greek Cypriot side’s desperate denials of its role in this passport issue, its link with the PKK in particular and interna-tional terrorism in general has been proven with various reports, press articles and other official documents.
Indeed, not only the Greek Cypriot officials but also other non and semi-official figures and organizations have, at times been reported to be supporting and morally and materially harboring the PKK and other terror groups, such as the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA). The prevailing mentality has always been “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” That has finally backfired, as seen in the Kurdish violence against the Greeks in connection with the arrest of Apo and his subsequent repatriation to Turkey.
The Greek Cypriot-PKK connection was first established by Dr. Vassos Lyssarides, the honorary president of the socialist Greek Cypriot party the Movement of Social Democrats (EDEK) and the former speaker of the Greek Cypriot Parliament, right after the Turkish intervention of 1974, with the motto “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
With the financial backing of the Greek Cypriot administration he established terrorist camps in the Troodos Mountains of southern Cy-prus in 1976 for the accommodation and training of ASALA and PKK terrorists to fight against Turkey.
Recently, the very same Dr. Vassos Lyssarides was sent to Da-mascus on an inducement mission to stop the ferry service from Fa-magusta to Lattakia, relying on his past cooperation with Syrian offi-cials in PKK business. During his discussion with the new generation of Syrian officials, he was kindly turned down and showed out, when he hinted to disclose the old files if the ferry service from Famagusta to Lattakia was not banned.
He also acted as an advisor to the USSR during the Cold War era on the very important subject titled “NATO and the Strategy of NATO in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.” During one of the “anti-NATO” meetings held in Athens in 1976, he stated that “a medium similar to the Vietcong’s in Vietnam, against [the] US is already organized in Cy-prus to wipe out the Turkish Cypriots from Cyprus.”
During the mid-1970s Lyssarides, the journalist Lazaros Mavros — the non-fictitious owner of Apo’s passport — and Theophilos Georg-hiades, the notorious Greek Cypriot narcotics smuggler, jointly estab-lished the KSC in Nicosia, the capital city of south Cyprus, with the aim of supporting and harboring the PKK in the Greek sector of the island.
By the end of the 1970s, in more than 30 camps in south Cyprus Greek, Greek Cypriot, Armenian and Kurdish terrorists, as well as ter-rorists from various other countries were under the training of Cuban, Libyan and Greek army officers.
Up until the present day no Greek Cypriot politician has ever la-beled the PKK a terrorist organization.
Even Mr. Yiannis Kasulides, the DISY presidential candidate who promotes himself as a mild-mannered politician seeking a sustainable, peaceful solution on the island, made various statements lending official support to the PKK in their terrorist attacks against Turkish civilians and troops during his days as minister of foreign affairs, which clearly defined his perspective on Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish people.
Even today, the funding provided by the Greek Cypriot Orthodox Church to the PKK, the organizational activities of the KSC by non-Kurdish Greek Cypriot members, the funding of the printed material supporting PKK activities by the Greek Cypriot administration, the medical treatment and rehabilitation of PKK terrorists in Cypriot hos-pitals who were wounded during their attacks against Turks and official permits to campaign for the collection of funds to benefit the PKK in south Cyprus show and clearly prove the strong connection between the Greek Cypriots, the Greek Cypriot administration and the PKK.
The Turkish Cypriots are being forced by the international com-munity to establish a joint state with the Greek Cypriots, who have harbored hostile feelings against Turks for centuries.
Somebody probably has pink dreams of a joint state in Cyprus under a unitary or a federal government umbrella, which in reality does not have a chance at survival. Two neighboring states in Cyprus is the inevitable and long-lasting solution for the island.
