> On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 12:02:58 -0000, cian <cian_oconnor at yahoo.co.uk>
> wrote:
Though...Hmm.... http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/watch/Policywatch/policywatch2000/439.htm Iranian Connection. Experts believe Turkish Hizbullah emerged around 1979 as the Iranian Revolution began supporting active terror methods for Islamist revolutions. Hundreds of the revolution's Turkish sympathizers reportedly spent time in Iran and Afghanistan in the 1980s. A 1995 Turkish parliamentary report revealed that 400—500 Turkish teenagers had been sent by Hizbullah to training camps in Iran for ideological and military training. Recently arrested Hizbullah terrorists have given further support to this claim by testifying in court that they received military training in Iran and have even provided names and descriptions of individual Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In an interview last week, the former chief of Turkish Police Intelligence stated that Iran brought Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and Hizbullah representatives together to negotiate a ceasefire in 1988, adding that it was only after this meeting in Iran that Turkish officials took a more decisive position against Hizbullah. It was also reported that Hizbullah leader Velioglu had returned from Iran only days before he was killed. Not surprisingly, Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi publicly denied any Iranian connection to Hizbullah during his recent visit to Turkey.
-- Michael Pugliese