Cicek: There Are Still West European Countries Which Don't Accept Organizations Called Terrorist Organization As So

ANKARA - Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said on Monday that there were still West European countries which did not accept organizations called as ''terrorist organization'' by Turkey as ''such organizations.''
Following the meeting of the Council of Ministers, Cicek told reporters that he would reply to questions on Saturday's terrorist attacks in Istanbul but would not give some information since investigation continued.
Asked ''which countries were sending condolences but in fact backing terrorism'', Cicek said, ''I don't mention any name. I only made a definition. Therefore, there is no need to say this or that country. You know about these because Turkey has been dealing with terrorism for a long time. We have been an expert of terrorism. We have suffered much.''
When asked if those countries were ''Iran and Syria'', Cicek said, ''I don't mention any name. The Middle East has been a geography where terrorism has taken shelter for a long time. Many countries have backed terrorism. Training camps were formed there and Turkey was disturbed from there. All these claimed lives of 30 thousand people.''
Cicek went on saying, ''but terrorism will disturb them in the end. It has started to deteriorate their territorial integrity. Therefore, any countries in the world can't reach anywhere with terrorism. Every activity made by using terrorism as a means of pressure on another country, to deteriorate stability of those countries, and to interrupt development of those countries may seem to be a successful activity in the short term but the same terrorism comes and hits that country in the end.''
''Therefore, this terrorism is the plague of this age. In this case, there is need for international cooperation. This terrorism will hit countries which are sheltering it in the end. The main difficulty here occurs as one country considers one as a terrorist while the other countries consider him/her as a person whom should be protected. We are calling one organization a terrorist organization. But, there are still some West European countries which don't accept one we call terrorist organization as a terrorist organization. They are sharing same democratic values and even, they wish to settle these democratic values in those societies. But, another country which claims that it shares the same values doesn't accept them as terrorist and grant them political asylum. Turkey will continue its fight against terrorism till the end and be successful even if other countries join it or not,'' Cicek added.
When said names of some concrete organizations and suspects took place in press and asked whether Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu gave a concrete information about this issue, Cicek said that he could not give information at the moment and added that all forces and intelligence branches of state were exerting efforts to find the perpetrators and supporters of this violence.
Replying to claims regarding that there was a weakness on the issue of intelligence, Cicek said that those claims could be brought onto agenda after such actions.
When asked what could be the contribution of countries which saw Islam as terrorism to such incidents, Cicek said that according to Turkey, terrorism was terrorism, adding that terror could not be linked with Islam because the word Islam meant peace.
(BRC-GC- 17.11.2003

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