NCJ Number
84248
Date Published
1981
Length
41 pages
Annotation
Testimony from two Turkish academicians documents indirect Soviet involvement in the support of Turkish terrorist groups.
Abstract
As far back as 1946, the Soviets asked the Turkish Ambassador to cede some part of eastern Turkey to Russia and to install joint military defense installations on the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, the straits linking the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The territory sought by the Soviets at that time is the very territory that the Marxist-Kurdish terrorists seek to control. Some of these terrorists have publicly professed their reception of Soviet support. Soviet weapons have been found in the possession of the terrorists, as well as counterfeit Western weapons apparently manufactured in Bulgaria. Some Argentine weapons confiscated from terrorists were found to have been ordered by Bulgaria. Arms smuggling into Turkey has been documented to include a profitable relationship between the Turkish mafia and certain Bulgarian state agencies of foreign trade. Support has also been given to Turkish terrorists by Syria and the Palestine Liberation Organization, with whom the Soviets have close ties. The Soviets apparently not only have interest in the territory of eastern Turkey but are also interested in destabilizing a neighboring country whose economic and political structures may prove more attractive than those in Russia and communist Eastern European countries. The prepared statement is included, along with questions and answers in the hearing.