Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 99-02-16

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr>

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 16/02/1999 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Greece calls for end to embassy sit-ins
• FM: Greece never considered asylum for Ocalan in Greece
• Athens calls for clarifications from Kenya
• Police round up Kurdish protestors
• Crisis management team meets on embassy crisis
• Kurdish official calls for end to sit-ins
• Increased security at foreign missions
• Kurdish hunger strikers vow to continue
• Rally scheduled for Thessaloniki
• Opposition slams handling of Ocalan issue
• Ruling party MPs critical
• Weather
• Foreign Exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Greece today called on Kurdish protesters to end the takeover of Greek embassies in various European capitals and cities and gave them an ultimatum to do so until noon. Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos issued the warning at an impromptu press conference at the foreign ministry as several embassies were seized by Kurdish demonstrators. Pangalos said that PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan had given "temporary residence, for humanitarian reasons" at the house of the Greek Ambassador in Kenya. Pangalos said that Kurdish demonstrators had seized the Greek embassies in Bonn, London, Vienna, Brussels and the Hague, and the Greek consulates in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

FM: Greece never considered asylum for Ocalan in Greece

Pangalos reiterated that Greece "never considered, or would consider, as expedient or useful the presence of Ocalan on Greek territory, for reasons concerning both the interests of the Kurdish people and security and stability in the region". He repeated that no application for granting political asylum to Ocalan had been made to Greece, "and if such a request had been submitted, under the 1991 Dublin treaty on political asylum, such a request would have been referred to Italy, which was the first European country that Ocalan went to after his departure from Syria".

Athens calls for clarifications from Kenya

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas requested clarifications from the Kenyan government concerning the circumstances surrounding the capture of Ocalan. Reppas said Ocalan had been in direct contact with Kenyan government officials - in whom the Kurdish leader had "shown trust" - with the aim of travelling to the Netherlands. The Greek government, he added, has no information about "the way things turned out" and bore no responsibility from the moment of Ocalan's departure "from where he was, with the responsibility of the Greek side" to an unknown destination. The handling of the issued by the foreign ministry and jointly competent ministries was entirely successful, Reppas said.

Police round up Kurdish protestors

Security police Tuesday morning arrested 12 Kurds who were staging a hunger strike outside the Greek Parliament, where two Kurds immolated themselves last night and were taken to hospital for treatment. The arrests bring to 80 the number of arrests outside parliament yesterday and today. According to a police source, the arrest of the 12 today was a precautionary measure because police feared that more Ocalan followers would set fire to themselves. Meanwhile, a group of 300 Kurdish refugees who were removed by police from a central downtown Athens square, were transferred late last night to an old airforce camp on Mount Pateras southwest of Athens, instead of an area in the Athens surburb of Aghia Varvara.

Crisis management team meets on embassy crisis

Two hours after Pangalos' impromptu press conference, the national defence ministry's crisis management team held an emergency meeting to "assess the situation following the attacks against the Greek embassies abroad by protesting Kurds". A defence ministry source told ANA that the meeting was being attended by the army, navy and airforce chiefs of staff, national defence general staff senior officers, and high-ranking officials from the foreign ministry and the Greek intelligence service (EYP).

Kurdish official calls for end to sit-ins

A leading Kurdish official today called on protesting Kurds to release Greek embassies and consulates that had seized throughout Europe, after Ankara formally announced it had rebel Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan in custody in Turkey. Yassar Kayar, president of the exiled Kurdish parliament, told an Athens press conference that the Kurds had seized embassies and consulates in a bid to discover the whereabouts of the PKK chief and leader of some 25 million Kurds.

Increased security at foreign missions

Greece increased security at foreign diplomatic missions on Tuesday as a precautionary measure against possible protests by Kurds, police sources said. Security was upped at the British embassy, which represents Kenya in Greece, and the Dutch, Italian, Turkish and U.S. embassies.

Kurdish hunger strikers vow to continue

A group of 20 Kurds on hunger strike outside the Macedonia and Thrace Ministry in Thessaloniki, northern Greece said on Tuesday that they were determined to sacrifice their lives for Ocalan. Ten Kurds had begun the hunger strike began on Monday afternoon demanding that political asylum be given to Ocalan. The group includes a couple with their four-year-old boy. The hunger strikers, wearing red headbands and white shirts, are in the meantime collecting money for the children of Kurdistan. A coach of riot police is parked nearby. Without Ocalan, the hunger strikers said, the Kurds have nothing to hope for and nothing to lose.

Rally scheduled for Thessaloniki

In Thessaloniki, Kurdish organisations said they would hold a rally for the 'oppressed Kurdish people' at 6.30 p.m., outside the Macedonia-Thrace building where 20 Kurds are on a hunger strike. A representative of the Kurds in the northern Greek city, who requested anonymity, said the community was "bitter" over the stance of the Greek government. He linked Monday night's arrests of Kurdish protestors outside the Parliament with Ocalan's capture in Kenya.

Opposition slams handling of Ocalan issue

The main opposition New Democracy (ND) party criticised the government's handling of the Ocalan issue, describing it as "bizarre and dangerous". Spokesman Aris Spiliotopoulos said the government had involved Greece in a crisis and had failed at all levels. According to sources, ND leader Costas Karamanlis, who is expected to speak on the Ocalan issue in Parliament later today, spoke in terms of "childish" handling by the government which had compromised Greece.

Ruling party MPs critical

PASOK MP Costas Bandouvas said the turn taken in the Ocalan issue was "shameful and a blot on modern Greek history." "Rather than protecting him, we handed him over and this act is a black page for the government," Bandouvas said. Bandouvas and MPs Stelios Papathemelis and Christos Kypouros were present at the news conference held by the president of the Kurdish Parliament in Exile Yassar Kayar, who said the exact circumstances regarding Ocalan's capture would be investigated. "I am not in a position to say who is responsible but the investigations will throw light on the arrest of the leader of the PKK," Kayar said.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(M.P.)

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article