PKK kidnaps 3 German tourists in east Turkey: agency

[Angelo]

PKK kidnaps 3 German tourists in east Turkey: agency


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Kurdish guerrillas have kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing expedition in eastern Turkey, a local governor said on Wednesday.

The three tourists had established a camp on Mount Ararat in Agri province as part of a 13-member climbing team when they were seized by a group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.

Kidnapping tourists is a rare tactic for the outlawed separatist PKK whose activities are mainly focused on attacking military targets in southeast Turkey.

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Anatolian reported Agri Governor Mehmet Cetin as saying the climbers had arrived in the region three days ago and had established a camp at a height of 3,200 meters (10,500 feet) on the mountain.

Five PKK militants approached the camp and chose three people to kidnap, he said. Their identity was not clear.

Agri province, which borders Iran, is to the north of the main PKK conflict region and is a popular destination for mountain climbers.

"The terrorists said they carried out this action because of the German government's recent moves against PKK associations and sympathizers," Anatolian reported the governor as saying. Continued...

© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Last month Germany banned Kurdish television station Roj TV, which Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble described as being a mouthpiece for the PKK.

Germany extradited two PKK militants to Turkey last year.

A German foreign ministry spokesman told reporters the ministry and German embassy in Ankara were urgently pursuing the reports about the kidnapping.

"The embassy is in close contact with Turkish authorities," a spokesman said.

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Cetin said gendarmerie forces were carrying out search operations in the region. The other climbers were taken to the nearest town.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 with the aim of establishing an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey.

Some 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

(Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in Berlin; Editing by Charles Dick)

© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.


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