"Austria providing assistance to PKK terrorists": Turkey taking Austria complaint to United Nations
Austria has so far failed to give "a satisfactory explanation" to Turkey concerning the recent escape of a senior leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from Vienna to Iraq, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Levent Bilman announced on Wednesday.
Rıza Altun, believed to be the PKK's chief financial operator, codenamed "Ali," flew from Vienna to the northern Iraqi province of Arbil on July 13, despite an Interpol red bulletin on him and an ongoing court trial on terrorism-related charges in France. Shortly after the incident emerged, Turkey presented an official protest to Austria both in Ankara and Vienna. Altun had already been arrested in France as part of an anti-PKK operation in February and was later released pending trial. Although he was banned from traveling out of the Paris area, he appeared in Vienna in early July, where he was briefly detained for carrying a false passport.
