KURDISTAN FREEDOM FALCONS/HAWKS

(TAK)

   During 2006, the Teyrebazen Azadiya Kurdistan (TAK), or Kurdistan Freedom Falcons or Hawks, began to set off bombs in several Turkish cities. Although most assumed that the TAK was simply a branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), it remained unclear whether it was such or a rival organization. Few remembered that when Abdullah (Apo) Ocalan had originally been captured in February 1999, a group calling itself the Revenge Hawks of Apo had killed 13 people when it set fire to a crowded department store in Istanbul. The TAK maintains a website at Teyrenkurdistan.com.