Kurds Seize 3 Western Tourists in 10th Year of Turkish Struggle
The kidnaping of three Western tourists and stepped-up clashes in southeastern Turkey on Sunday marked the start of a 10th year of the Kurdish rebel struggle for an independent state.
Kurdish guerrillas seized two Germans, Albrech Lehman and Henry Butler, and New Zealander Paul Thompson not far from biblical Mt. Ararat in eastern Turkey, a feature of many Turkish tourist posters but now more often a virtual war zone.
Their abduction was claimed by the Syrian-based Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). “Tourists who come to Turkey are financing this dirty war,” the rebels said, but added that the three men “are being treated as guests, and they are safe and well.”
On Wednesday, the rebels released six French, British and Australian tourists after five weeks in captivity. The hostages suffered forced night marches through 12,000-foot-high mountains and a diet of stale bread, sheep’s butter and black tea that made most of them sick.
Many Western governments have warned their citizens not to travel in mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey. Turkey’s main tourist resorts are hundreds of miles to the west, and embassies have advised only normal precautions for travel there.
The damage to Turkish tourism has not been catastrophic, but the rebels hope to raise their international profile and hit back at Turkey.
On Saturday, Turkish troops fired on a pro-rebel demonstration in the town of Digor near Mt. Ararat, killing 10 people. On Sunday, Turkish forces shot dead two more demonstrators and a guerrilla at a protest march.
“We have no choice but to clean the terrorists out of the mountains,” said President Suleyman Demirel.
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