American diplomats hostage in 1979. Iran handed over to Turkey seven Turkish Kurdish separatists it had arrested last March. The men belonged to the KADEK party, a radical group similar to the larger PKK. Unlike the PKK, KADEK recently announced that it was switching from fighting for a separate Kurdish state to being a political party representing Kurdish interests. Iran has long tolerated Turkish Kurdish separates operating in its territory, but has harshly put down any such operations among it's own
