ANKARA, April 25,
2006, -- Turkey's outspoken Kurdish rights advocate
Leyla Zana has arrived in Kurdistan (northern Iraq)
to meet with top Kurdish leaders, the Turkish media
reported Tuesday.
During a four-day visit that started Monday, Zana
was expected to discuss the increase in deadly
clashes between Turkey's security forces and
separatist rebels in the mainly Kurdish southeast of
the country, who have used Iraq as a staging ground
for planning attacks.
She was to meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
and Massud Barzani, president of Kurdistan, Iraq's
autonomous northern region Kurdistan region, as well
as other key regional leaders, the reports said.
The recipient of the Sakharov human rights prize --
awarded by the European Parliament in 1995 -- will
exchange views on how to achieve "a new period of
suspended hostilities," notably a ceasefire with the
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), banned in
Turkey, said the Hurriyet daily.
Zana was imprisoned between 1994 and 2004 along with
three other Kurdish deputies in Turkey for alleged
links with the PKK.
Clashes between the Turkish military the PKK have
increased in recent months, accompanied by
widespread rioting in the Kurdish-majority southeast
and several bomb attacks in the west.
Civil unrest erupted in the region's main city
Diyarbakir on March 28 after youths attacked the
police following the funerals of PKK rebels killed
in fighting with the army. The violence spread
quickly to other towns in the region.
A total of 16 people, including three small boys,
were killed when the security forces opened fire and
used tear gas to disperse the crowds, which attacked
the police with Molotov cocktails, torched banks and
vandalized public buildings and shops.
Most PKK rebels crossed the border into northern
Iraq in 1999 after the arrest of their longtime
leader Abdullah Ocalan. The outlawed group also
declared a ceasefire.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed an
estimated 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK --
blacklisted as a terror group by Turkey, the United
States and the European Union -- took up arms for
self-rule in southeastern Turkey.
AFP |
Turkey's outspoken Kurdish rights advocate Leyla
Zana
Iraqi
President : Jalal Talabani, a Kurd
Photo: Military
Massoud Barzani, President of Kurdistan
Region in Iraq |
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