DHKP/C militants receive training in Greek refugee camp, daily says

The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), a terrorist organization that has carried out eight terrorist attacks over the past six months in Turkey, signed a protocol agreement with intelligence officials in Greece which includes a provision for its militants to receive training at a camp in Greece, the Bugün daily reported on Tuesday.

The DHKP/C’s consecutive attacks over the past months, which claimed the lives of three policemen, have turned attention to its camps in Greece. Searches made of the bodies and houses of suspected DHKP/C militants have revealed that they receive armed training at the Lavrion Refugee Camp in Greece. The daily reported that the DHKP/C militants stay in groups in Athens after completing their training until they are given orders to stage an attack in Turkey.

According to an investigation carried out by the National Police Department’s Counterterrorism and Intelligence Unit, there are four DHKP/C militants in five homes in Athens. According to the protocol between the DHKP/C and Greek intelligence officials, the DHKP/C is only to carry out terrorist attacks in Turkey. The DHKP/C is listed as a terrorist organization many European countries in addition to Turkey.

The DHKP/C reportedly offers two years of training to its militants for them to carry out bomb strikes or other armed attacks. DHKP/C militants who complete their training at the Lavrion Refugee Camp go to Turkey after receiving orders from Hüseyin Fevzi Tekin, a senior DHKP/C militant, Bugün noted.

Since the Lavrion Refugee Camp in Greece operates under the auspices of the United Nations, Turkey’s National Police Department is unable to take any action against the suspected DHKP/C militants in this camp. Turkey has applied to Interpol for the extradition of many of the militants to Turkey, but Greek authorities have failed to respond as of yet.

Over the past six months, 16 DHKP/C terrorists came to Turkey to stage terrorist attacks after receiving training at the Greek camp. One of those was a suicide bomber who died in the strike ; three bodies were recovered at the scene of the attack, and 12 were captured alive.

The DHKP/C militants have targeted a number of police stations and other places in Turkey. They carried out the first attack on the İstinye Police Station in June. One DHKP/C militant was killed in the attack.

In their second attack, a group of DHKP/C militants placed a bomb in the restroom of a restaurant in İstanbul’s Fatih district and in another attack they injured a policeman who was withdrawing money from an ATM.

DHKP/C militants also shot dead a policeman who was at a restaurant in İstanbul’s Gaziosmanpaşa neighborhood in June.

One DHKP/C militant was captured as he was preparing to attack the İstanbul Police Department in July.

Another DHKP/C attack on the Sultangazi 75. Yıl Police Station claimed the life of a police officer while seven others, including four policemen, were injured in September.

One of the most recent attacks was on the 75. Yıl Police Station in İstanbul’s Yenibosna neighborhood earlier this month during which several police officers were injured. One of the two DHKP/C militants who carried out the attack was captured while the other staged a suicide attack on a police station in Gaziosmanpaşa several days later , killing a policeman.

It appears that the DHKP/C uses militants who are ill in order to stage suicide attacks. For instance, Nurgül Acar, a DHKP/C militant who killed a policeman in Gaziosmanpaşa this month, was suffering from breast cancer and had lost one of her breasts. Nebiha Avcı, another DHKP/C militant, staged the attack in Yenibosna. She was a kidney disease patient. And İbrahim Çuhadar, who killed a police officer in Sultangazi, was also suffering from cancer.

Elsewhere, another suspected DHKP/C militant was captured in a police operation in the southern province of Adana on Monday.

According to a statement from the Adana police, DHKP/C militant Şemsettin K., who wrote a letter to DHKP/C leaders in 1993 telling them that he is ready for any kind of duty and that he would even sacrifice his life, was captured in Adana, interrogated and held in prison.

Lien/Source : Today’s Zaman