Turkey plans to offer cash rewards to those helping catch PKK members

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Turkish Interior Ministry is planning to implement a system that would provide cash rewards for those who help security forces capture members of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Today’s Zaman said quoting a report in Milliyet daily.

The plan reportedly comes in response to the PKK's recently intensified terrorist activities in city centers and rural areas of the Southeast. An amendment made to Turkey's Counterterrorism Law (TMK) in 2006 had already introduced the reward system, but a lack of regulations prevented implementation of the system.

The ministry has reportedly ordered the Security General Directorate to prepare a special regulation draft to put the system into effect and to determine who will be paid the reward and under which circumstances. The draft, which has been sent to the Finance Ministry and the Interior Ministry, will be finalized by bureaucrats at these ministries and will go into effect as soon as it is published in the Official Gazette. Once the system is put into action, those who report the identity or location of a person involved in terrorist activity will be given a cash reward.