Huseyin aygun (41) – a member of the opposition republican people’s party (CHP) and himself a kurd – was abducted from a car near ovacik in the eastern province of tunceli, the turkish news agency anadolu reported on monday, citing provincial authorities. The turkish government and aygun’s party set up crisis staffs, security forces began a search operation for the politician.
The act was strongly condemned in turkey. "This shows the dimension terror has taken in turkey," said a CHP party spokesman. Politicians of the islamic conservative ruling party AKP said the act was an attack on the entire parliament.
The PKK-affiliated firat news agency confirmed the crime and reported that PKK fighters had "arrested" the politician. Aygun was traveling with a staff member and a journalist the night before when her car was stopped. The other two manneres were quickly released. They reported that aygun had been threatened with death if he resisted.
The politician has worked on human rights issues and the rights of minorities in turkey. Turkic commentators assessed the abduction as an attempt by the PKK to demonstrate strength and to smuggle in parliamentary deputies from the ranks of the kurdish people’s group.
The kurdish conflict has escalated in recent weeks. After the PKK attacked turkish military posts in the tri-border area between turkey and iraq and iran, heavy fighting broke out near the border. Ankara accused damascus regime and iran of supporting PKK. The turkish government wants to prevent the PKK from taking advantage of the civil war in neighboring syria to take permanent control of areas inhabited by kurds there.
The PKK is classified as a terrorist organization by turkey, the EU and the U.S. She has been fighting for independence or greater autonomy for the kurdish areas in turkey since the early 1980s. Kurdish organizations complain of systematic discrimination against their ethnic group by the turkish state.