AKSAM- Columnist Izzet Sedes writes on the recently released EU list of terrorist organizations which excluded the PKK and the DHKP-C. A summary of his column is as follows:
The exclusion of the PKK, which wants to establish a Kurdish state on our territory, and the religious reactionary DHKP-C, which would like Turkey to turn into a fundamentalist Islamist state, from the list prepared by the EU has given rise to reaction in our country. Sometimes the Europeans can be very naive. Occasionally they believe in causes which are far from the truth, and it is very hard to shake their belief. The PKK and the DHKP-C can viewed within this perspective. There are more than 3 million Turks living in Europe. In order to be granted asylum by the country they are living in, they have to say that they have been subject to abuse or torture in their own country. Turks are giving petitions to foreign lawyers specialized in these issues and signing documents in a language without really knowing what is written, just so that they can be granted asylum. Furthermore, there are many Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin or fundamentalists living in the EU countries who are deliberately repeating certain arguments, slandering Turkey to the politicians and everyone else. However, Turkish politicians and statesmen are not giving sufficient information on the issue to their counterparts when they meet. They expect the ambassadors to deal with the matter but the ambassadors cannot see the ministers or other politicians in the country they are serving as easily as can those in Turkey. That is why Foreign Minister Ismail Cem must inform his colleagues either by phone or in face-to-face meetings in detail regarding the issues and try to convince them also by seeking the help of friendly countries. It would be wrong to depend solely on the US to convince them. The Europeans don't like intervention by the US or other parties into their affairs. We must learn the cause lying behind their exclusion of these terrorist organizations from the list, and then act accordingly.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION