well known Turkish clothing firm LC Waikiki (LCW). For about two weeks the Internet has been awash with unfounded rumors that LCW has been sold

to Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman to take a seat in the Turkish Parliament. The result of the cyber-gossip has been a fourfold increase in visits to the LCW website; the number of visitors spiraled from 60,000 a month to 280,000 in five days. On the face of it that sounds like good news, but not if it is coupled with a 15% drop in sales revenue.

in 1991 when she took her oath as an MP by starting it in Turkish but finishing it in Kurdish.

she recently referred to the incarcerated head of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, as a "leader"

proposal to reorganize Turkey into a set of federal states, one of them being Kurdistan

According to the electronic whispering campaign, Zana now owns LCW and the money made from its products is being directed to the PKK.

In fact the company is at a loss to know how the rumors came about