Cyprus-Forum.com

[Sotos]

TURKEY is asking indirectly for Cyprus to hand over a wanted senior member of the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), who was arrested on the island earlier in the week.

Police said yesterday the issue was with the Attorney-general. Cyprus and Turkey do not have relations, as Ankara does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus, so it is believed the request for extradition has been channelled through Interpol.

Aslan Tayfun Ozkok was arrested at Larnaca airport on August 9 on suspicion of having a fake Bulgarian passport. He has since been jailed in Nicosia for eight months, police in Larnaca said yesterday.

“He was jailed for possession of a false passport,” a police spokesman said, adding that the extradition issue was with the Attorney-general’s office.

Ozkok, who was on death row for the assassinations of former Prime Minister Nihat Erim and former Istanbul security chief aid Mahmut Dikler, had escaped from prison and assumed the codename Musa. He was being sought by Turkey under an Interpol red alert.

The DHKP/C has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the US State Department since October 1997 and is also on UK and EU terror lists.

According to the Anatolia News Agency, the DHKP/C has since the late 1980s targeted current and retired Turkish security and military officials. In 1990, it launched a further round of attacks, which included US military and diplomatic personnel and facilities. The group has not staged any attacks since the assassination of influential businessman Özdemir Sabanc? on January 9, 1996, Anatolia said.

Ozkok was believed to have been on his way to the Netherlands to see ailing DHKP/C leader Dursun Karatas, who died of liver cancer on Monday. It was thought Ozkok was earmarked to succeed him. Karatas was buried in Istanbul on Friday, the Turkish Daily News (TDN) reported yesterday.

TDN said the lack of relations between Turkey and Cyprus was “weakening Ankara’s hand”.

A Turkish diplomat told TDN that Ankara was seeking extradition through “indirect” channels, namely Interpol. “We only have a demand and hope to get positive consequences,” he said. “So far allegations circulating have revealed that criminals and terrorists wanted by Turkey would rather flee to the south of the Mediterranean island due to Ankara's lack of diplomatic ties with the Cyprus government.”

The same lack of ties has hindered the arrest and trial of the murderers of two Greek Cypriots along the buffer zone in 1996, despite outstanding international arrest warrants pending against them.

One of the wanted men, former ‘Agriculture Minister’ in the north Kenan Akin was arrested in Turkey in 2004 for smuggling, but was released by Turkish authorities despite the Interpol warrant.

I hope they are joking about jailing this man for killing Turkish military murdering assholes. I hope that they actually provide for him with good vacations and a good training and financial support so he can continue his good job soon!!

[Sotos]

and nice "ministers" you have in the pseudo state. Murderers and smugglers!

[Oracle]

The Turks are non-cooperative Piranhas of politics.

Until they arrest and punish those murderers of our innocent civilians they do not deserve any alleged "murderers" of their politicians back.

What idiots the Turks are ... only they recognise a non-existent "country" like the "TRNC" and to double their dimness, they are the only ones that do not recognise a legitimate world-renowned country like the RoC.

Delusional dimwits

[roseandchan]

have been reading about the way the uk gets around this even though it doesn't do business regarding extradition with the trnc. it takes a police officer here ,or possible a tc who has lived in the uk,to do the speaking on behalf of the trnc. then it is seen as a three way conversation hence the uk is not talking to the trnc they are talking to a third part and relaying the needs through them. that way they can if they want get people extradited to the uk. maybe interpol can do the same . three way conversation but it gets results in the end.

[CopperLine]

Sotos,
I hope that you realise that, in these times, your opening statement amounts to aiding and abetting terrorism or, at minimum, 'glorifying terrorism' ! Insofar as DHKP/C is a proscribed organisation in UK, EU and USA then you fall for each of their anti-terrorism laws. People have been charged for a lot less in the UK, a newspaper was sued last week in Turkey simply for printing the opinions of a Kurdish party administrator, and of course the US has illegally 'rendered' thousands of people for far more innocent comments than yours.

[Oracle]

have been reading about the way the uk gets around this even though it doesn't do business regarding extradition with the trnc. it takes a police officer here ,or possible a tc who has lived in the uk,to do the speaking on behalf of the trnc. then it is seen as a three way conversation hence the uk is not talking to the trnc they are talking to a third part and relaying the needs through them. that way they can if they want get people extradited to the uk. maybe interpol can do the same . three way conversation but it gets results in the end.

It's not merely about three way conversations.

The Turks had that Agriculture Minister and let him go without charges. It is about perceptions of whose life is worth what. One Turk is worth the whole world, so when a Turk is killed they seek revenge. But when a GC is killed by them, that is meaningless, and not worthy of punishing a Turk over.

[Sotos]

Sotos,
I hope that you realise that, in these times, your opening statement amounts to aiding and abetting terrorism or, at minimum, 'glorifying terrorism' ! Insofar as DHKP/C is a proscribed organisation in UK, EU and USA then you fall for each of their anti-terrorism laws. People have been charged for a lot less in the UK, a newspaper was sued last week in Turkey simply for printing the opinions of a Kurdish party administrator, and of course the US has illegally 'rendered' thousands of people for far more innocent comments than yours.

I live in Cyprus and we have our own laws. The terrorists are the Turkish army who occupy north Cyprus and Kurdistan!