By Xinhua,
Ankara : The governor of an eastern province of Turkey said on Sunday that militants of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), who could not stand against the tight measures taken by Turkish security forces, had to release the three German mountaineers they kidnapped from Mount Agri, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
Mehmet Cetin, governor of the eastern Agri province, was quoted as saying that the Turkish security forces immediately reached the region upon the release of the German mountaineers and they brought the mountaineers to Dogubayazit town center.
“Upon the completion of medical examinations and legal proceedings, the mountaineers will be delivered to the German delegation waiting in Agri,” Cetin said.
On July 8, PKK members kidnapped the three German mountaineers during a raid on a camp at a height of 3,200 meters of altitude on Mount Agri in eastern Turkey.
The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. About 40,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.