Passenger ferry hijacked in northwest Turkey

[Welato_21]

(Reuters) - At least one assailant claiming to have a bomb hijacked a passenger ferry carrying 21 people in northwest Turkey on Friday, local officials said.

Coastguard vessels were tracking the ferry east of Istanbul, they said. Kocaeli Governor Ercan Topaca said there were 17 passengers and four crew on the "Kartepe" ferry which was traveling between Izmit and Golcuk in the Gulf of Izmit when it was hijacked around 5.45 pm (1545 GMT).

Some reports said there was only one hijacker but others said there were four or five assailants who had overpowered the captain of the ferry and seized passengers' mobile phones.

It was unclear who was behind the hijacking but broadcaster NTV reported a claim that an assailant said he was a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)

Three coastguards and a helicopter were following the 400-passenger capacity ferry, CNN Turk reported.

[Kurdistano]

bullshit high 5. hijacking is the last thing PKK would do. Turkey searches for any reason to move into South Kurdistan and make a bad name for PKK.

hijacking ferry. They try to create an image of 11/9 for PKK. funnily everytime such actions are claimed to have been planned from PKK. Always the Police is able to catch them before it happens.

I mean hijacking a passenger ferry. An organisation which is fighting against the terror label is not going to do something like this.

[Welato_21]

Kurdistano you right

[talsor]

I think next ,they will accuse PKK of hijacking a train

[Kurdistano]

I think next ,they will accuse PKK of hijacking a train

And of course oddly enough those "hijacker terrorists" also told them directly that they belong to PKK. I mean of course those PKK fighters who dont fear death and torture in the mnountains tell the Police straight away, after getting captured, to which organisation they "belong". Very realistic scenario.

[brendar]

hhahahah turks are funny....they think they have no thief or hijacker turks apart from pkk>>

[Azamat]

While I also doubt that this hijacking was organized by the PKK, we must not rule out the possibility of a 'lone-wolf' who acted for the Kurdish cause. TAK could also have been behind the action. Firat also reported that the during the hijacking, the vessel was sailing in the direction of Imrali.

Call me a terrorist symphatizer if you will, but I would lie to you guys if I said I totally condemned this action. I differentiate between two types of hijackings: a hostage taking(often with clear demands and goals), and the violent type, in which the occurence of civilian casualties are the actual essence(often suicide missions, think of 9/11). Needless to say, I oppose the latter type, but the hijacking we have seen today seemed to have been one of the first type. His demands might even have included the release of Serok Apo.

Of course my definition of 'terrorism' is not practiced by the Turkish state, and the Turkish qualification of a terrorist act seems to be based not on the nature of the action, but rather who the perpetrators are and whether they are 'authorized' to do that. If the PKK were to capture and imprison Erdogan or some generals for crimes against the Kurdish nation, it would undoubtedly be labeled an act of 'terrorism', while exactly the same thing happened to our leader, in what they called a 'national security operation'. Double standards, but hey, what else can we expect from the Turkish Republic?

[jjmuneer]

The real question is how can we Kurds resort to a peaceful solution when they do not allow us to do so?