Turkish passenger ferry hijacked by alleged Kurdish militant ‘with bomb’

Wikimedia Commons File
Source: Nationalpost
Izmit File Photo
ISTANBUL — Kurdish rebels hijacked a ferry with 25 people aboard in the sea of Marmara, where Abdullah Ocalan, leader of a banned separatist group, is imprisoned, Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said Friday.
Four or five hijackers claiming to be Kurdish rebels seized control of the ferry off northwestern Turkey late Friday, he said.

“We think they are four or five…. They say they belong to a branch of the terrorist organization,” he told NTV television station, referring to the military command of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), at around 1930 GMT as the hostage-taking was on course.
He said that the hijackers had made no demands so far.
Yildirim said that 19 passengers, four crew and two interns were aboard the ferry, the Kartepe, which was on its normal route in the sea of Marmara between Izmit and Golcuk.
One of the hijackers claimed to have a bomb and told the ferry’s captain that he wanted media publicity, local mayor Ismail Karaosmanoglu told NTV.
Yildirim said the hijackers had ordered the ferry to head to the southwest, adding that it had enough fuel to continue for 120 nautical miles (220 kilometres).
The island of Imrali, where Ocalan, the jailed PKK leader, is being held, lies around 120 kilometres to the southwest of the point where the ferry was hijacked. Turkish media say the hijackers may be aiming for the island.
Pro-Kurdish demonstrations are regularly held in different cities of Turkey in support of Ocalan, who is still considered the PKK’s chief despite his imprisonment.
Yildirim said that the Kartepe was being shadowed by coast guard ships, saying they had not had direct contact with the rebels, but had managed brief exchanges with the captain.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms for Kurdish independence in southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.
Clashes between the PKK and the army have escalated since mid-2011.
A surge of attacks by PKK rebels also caused civilian deaths in Turkey, prompting the Turkish military to launch in October a cross-border operation against rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.
The army operations were mostly concentrated in Turkey’s southeast as well as a few areas in the north of Iraq.
Observers say the military action aimed at alleviating domestic outcries, with no solution to eradicate the roots of the problem.


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