The three men, who were kidnapped July 8 while climbing Mount Ararat in northeastern Turkey near the borders with Armenia and Iran, have no health problems, the Kurdish rebel organization said in a statement to the Kurdish Firat news agency Sunday.

The PKK said the anti-Kurdish policies of the German government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel are responsible for the kidnapping. "The Merkel government, together with the Turkish government, must give up sacrificing the Kurdish people's freedom struggle in the name of certain economic interests," it said.

The group added it had nothing against Germany as a nation.

"Had we had (such feelings), we could have inflicted greater damage to German economic interests in Turkey. ... We are strong enough to inflict such damage," it said.

The statement didn't present details how it would be able to damage the country economically, but an estimated 500,000 Kurds live in Germany -- the largest Kurdish minority in Europe. Some 11,500 of them sympathize with the PKK and its goal of claiming cultural and political rights for the Kurdish population within Turkey.

The PKK previously aimed to create an independent Kurdish state comprising parts of Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq, and because of armed conflicts with the Turkish military is listed as a terrorist organization by a number of states and organizations, including the United States and the European Union.

The PKK has been banned in Germany, together with several groups that support the rebels. As recently as last month, Germany's Interior Ministry ordered the Denmark-based Kurdish satellite television channel Roj TV to stop broadcasting in the country because it promoted the PKK. Berlin also closed a production house that helped broadcast the station.

The latest kidnapping nevertheless comes as somewhat of a surprise: The PKK has been famous for its attacks on the Turkish military, but not for abducting foreigners.

Of course, the PKK is under severe pressure: In recent months Turkey has launched several counterstrikes, pursuing the rebels even into their hideouts in mountainous northern Iraq.

So the latest kidnapping is also a sign of the group's weakness -- kidnapping Germans (who unfortunately are known to produce large amounts of ransom) and blackmailing Berlin may be its last resort.

On Sunday, the Turkish military killed three rebels in the southeastern Sirnak province, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised Merkel in a personal meeting on the sidelines of the EU-Mediterranean summit in Paris that Turkish authorities will do all they can to get the hostages released, German national broadcaster ZDF television said Monday.

The three men were identified only as Helmut H., 65; Martin S., 48; and Lars R., 33, all from Bavaria, according to German mass-selling daily newspaper Bild. They were snatched by armed men while camping at an altitude of about 10,000 feet. The remaining 10 people in the mountaineering group, most of them also Germans, were left where they were.

ZDF said some PKK leaders have distanced themselves from the kidnapping, calling it the work of "provincial commanders."

Berlin has said a crisis team was working day and night to get the men released and added it had sent "experts on the ground." However, so far there have been no signs of progress.

The German Foreign Ministry has advised German travelers to stay away from southeastern Turkey, but the warning came only after the men had been kidnapped.

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