|
Turkish police arrest 20 suspected Kurdish
militants
12.4.2006
|
|
|
|
ANKARA, Turkey
(AP) - Police raided several homes around the
Turkish capital and detained 20 suspected Kurdish
militants alleged to be planning a series of
firebomb attacks, the Anatolia news agency reported
Tuesday.
The raids come after some of the worst clashes
between security forces and Kurdish protesters in
decades, in which 16 civilians have been killed in
the past week.
Kurdish militants stepped up their attacks on
Turkish security forces, and several soldiers have
been killed by land mines blamed on Kurdish rebels.
A land mine in the southeastern province of Sirnak
injured six children who were playing in a field,
and two of them were said to be in serious
condition, NTV television reported Tuesday.
Land mine casualties are common in Turkey's
southeast, where Kurdish guerrillas fighting for
autonomy commonly use them to attack military
targets. Turkey says it has not planted mines since
1998.
A militant Kurdish group called the Kurdistan
Freedom Falcons claimed responsibility Monday for a
bomb found by a bus driver after he had driven
prosecutors and judges to work at two courts in
Istanbul.
In a message posted on its Web site, the group said
the bomb was a warning to judges and prosecutors to
stop acting against Kurdish militants. It said it
would use such bombs in the future if ''judicial
terrorism'' against Kurds continued.
The group is believed to be linked to the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has been
fighting for autonomy in the mountainous southeast
since 1984 in a conflict that has killed 37,000
people. The PKK is listed as a terrorist
organization by Turkey, the United States and the
European Union.
Anti-terrorism police carried out the raids in
Ankara early Monday, Anatolia said. They seized
drums filled with gasoline that they believe would
have been used to make firebombs.
Meanwhile, a court in Istanbul began hearing a new
lawsuit against the country's best-known novelist,
brought by a group of nationalists who accuse him of
insulting the Turkish people.
Orhan Pamuk, who gained international acclaim for
books including ''Snow,'' and ''My Name is Red,'' is
being sued by six nationalist lawyers who are
seeking compensation from the writer.
The case against him hinges on comments he made in a
Swiss newspaper last year, stating that ''30,000
Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these
lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it.''
Tuesday, a court dropped charges against four
Turkish journalists accused of insulting the
country's courts, but decided to proceed with the
trial of a fifth journalist.
All five were on trial for criticizing a court's
decision last year to shut down a conference about
the mass killings of Armenians by Turks during the
Ottoman Empire.
The lawsuits are considered a test of Turkey's
readiness for membership in the European Union.
Turkey, which embarked on membership talks in
October, is under heavy pressure from the EU to
improve its human rights situation.
AP
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 