CURUKKAYA, SELIM

(Tilki)

   Selim Curukkaya (whose nickname Tilki means "Fox") was a leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Europe who fell out with the party over charges that he had made enormous amounts of money in drug dealing, and he was sentenced to death. He fled to Germany, where he published a book entitled Verses of Apo, which was denounced by the PKK. In his book, Curukkaya called Abdullah (Apo) Ocalan, the leader of the PKK, a "murderer" and "dictator" and referred to him as being "the biggest betrayer of the already betrayed Kurdish revolution." Curukkaya's wife, Aysel (Medya) Curukkaya, had earlier been a leading PKK militant in the province of Amed (Diyarbakir).