PKK removed from terror list

PanARMENIAN.Net - A European Union court on Thursday overturned the bloc's decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the EU terror list.



The Luxembourg-based EU Court of First Instance said that decisions made by EU governments in 2002 and 2004 to blacklist the two groups and freeze their assets violated the bloc's law.



It is the latest of several court decisions overturning similar EU decisions on the grounds that the groups added to the terror list were not properly informed of the decision to blacklist them nor given a right to appeal the decision.



The court said the autonomy-seeking PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, and its political wing, known as KONGRA-GEL, were not in positions "to understand, clearly and unequivocally, the reasoning" that led European Union governments to add them to the terror list.



The PKK was added to the list in 2002, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Its political wing was added in 2004. The United States and Turkey also list the PKK as a terrorist organization. Fighting between the guerrillas and Turkish troops has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984.



The EU has about 60 organizations and individuals on its terrorist list, the Associated Press reports.