Press releases

STATEMENT OF THE SPOKESMAN OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF TURKEY IN RESPONSE TO A QUESTION

The First Instance Court of the EU Court of Justice has rendered a decision on 3 April 2008 on the applications made to it against the decisions of the EU Council in 2002 and 2004 concerning the inclusion of the PKK/KONGRA-GEL terrorist organisation in the terrorist organisations list of the EU.

The text of the decision is being evaluated in detail. An initial examination reveals that the Court has not expressed an opinion on whether the PKK/KONGRA-GEL is a terrorist organisation, but on whether the process by which it was included into the EU list of terrorist organizations was consistent with EU law.

The PKK, together with all its other names (KADEK, KONGRA-GEL etc.), continues to be on the terrorist organizations list annexed to the 20 December 2007 decision of the EU Council, which is still valid.

In this respect, the claims of proponents of the terrorist organisation that the PKK/KONGRA-GEL has been taken off the EU terrorist organisations list do not reflect the truth. It is known that despite similar decisions taken in the past by the said Court regarding the process of inclusion in the EU list of some other terrorist organizations, these continue to be on the EU Council list as terrorist organisations. In fact, statements were made by the EU Council confirming this.



Republic of Turkey - Ministry of Foreign Affairs