Key PKK member arrested in Italy

Nizamettin Toğuç, the chairman of the Confederation of Kurdish Associations in Europe, or Kon Kurd, is among the European leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, arrested in Venice as a result of a joint operation by the Italian Secret Intelligence Service and the Podova gendarmerie

Nizamettin Toğuç, the chairman of the Confederation of Kurdish Associations in Europe, or Kon Kurd, and four other alleged leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, have been arrested in Venice, wires reported Wednesday.

The arrests were the result of a joint operation between the Italian Secret Intelligence Service and the Podova Gendemarie.

The prosecutor’s office in Venice verified that Toğuç were arrested in accordance with the international warrant issued by an Ankara court on suspicion that he was a member of the PKK. Italian police had already located and shut down PKK camps near the Italian city of Pisa not long ago.

Toğuç, alleged to be a European leader of the outlawed group, is thought to have fled Turkey after the Democracy Party was banned in 1994, and was granted political asylum by the Netherlands in 1995. Turkey could request Toğuç’s extradition, while it would also be possible for the Netherlands to request he be repatriated there.

Reports said Toğuç arrived in Venice with his wife under the cover of a vacation and is alleged to have been planning to attend a secret meeting thought to have been organized by the PKK.

The Italian office of self-declared “Kurdistan” announced that PKK supporters would stage a demonstration July 24 to protest the arrests of Toğuç and the other four alleged leaders.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Hürriyet Daily