PARIS: The trial began in France on Tuesday of 11 alleged senior members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), accused of extortion, terrorist financing and propaganda for the organisation.

Labelled a terrorist organisation by the United States, European Union and Turkiye, the PKK has been waging a decades-long armed struggle against Ankara for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority in the Turkish southeast.

None of the 11 suspects — all Turkish citizens aged from 24 to 64 — acknowledges membership in the group.

Nine of the 11 suspects charged in the case appeared before the Paris criminal court as the trial got under way.

One of those who failed to show up did so after his family was subjected to pressure in Turkiye, his legal team said. The sister of another man had also been arrested in the country.

Organised cells are believed to be active among France’s up to 150,000 Kurdish residents as well as among the 100,000 in the Netherlands and the million-strong community in Germany.

The investigators’ probe began in 2020, when two Kurdish women aged 18 and 19 were reported missing in southeast France.

It soon appeared that they had left for PKK training camps elsewhere in Europe.

Tugging on the thread led investigators to a network based around a Kurdish association in Marseille which they say was collecting a form of community tax known as “kampanya” that funds the PKK.

Published in Dawn, April 5rd, 2023