official told the Turkish Daily News on Tuesday. Turkey is a country that seizes 60 percent of drugs being smuggled to Europe, the official continued.
"If Italy refuses to cooperate with us in the Abdullah Ocalan case, how will we cooperate with Italy's liaison
officer here in Ankara? So, the end of cooperation between Ankara and Rome will also cause a boom in drug
smuggling and human kidnapping," he said. However, he also seemed sure that in the end Ocalan will be
extradited to Turkey. "We received a message from our counterparts in Europe that there is nothing to
prevent the extradition of Ocalan to us."
Despite the Schengen regulations, Germany does not want to take Ocalan, which would mean the beginning
of demonstrations in that country," the official continued, adding that the United States was the key factor in
this issue.
"This is in fact a struggle between Europe and the United States. This is the effort of Europe to increase its
role in the Middle East, which will certainly be faced with a U.S. barrier," he commented.
(...) Turkish Daily News 18 nov 1998
full text in Conf. Partito Radicale
