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Kurdish rebels behind latest Turkish
resort blast
29.8.2006
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ANKARA, August
29, 2006 ,-- An explosion which killed three people
in Turkey's popular Mediterranean resort of Antalya
was caused by a bomb placed by separatist Kurdish
rebels, Turkish newspapers reported Tuesday.
The blast occurred Monday between two mopeds parked
opposite a market near a municipal building, killing
three Turks and wounding 20 others, local police
spokesman Akif Aktug said.
It came just a day after nearly 30 people were
injured in a series of explosions in Marmaris,
another Turkish seaside town, and the country's
biggest city Istanbul.
A radical Kurdish militant group claimed
responsibility for both attacks.
The mass-circulation Sabah newspaper said that the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has
been fighting Ankara since 1984, was behind the
explosion in Antalya and that police were looking
for three suspects in the city which is surrounded
by several other resorts and is popular with both
European and Turkish tourists.
Local police and officials have yet to announce the
cause of the blast.
A Kurdish group calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom
Falcons (TAK) claimed on Monday responsibility for
the Marmaris and Istanbul blasts.
Turkish officials say TAK is a front for PKK attacks
on civilian targets; the PKK claims TAK is a
splinter group over which it has no control.
TAK, which in April threatened to attack tourist
destinations, has claimed responsibility for 12
other bomb attacks in urban centres across the
country this year in which six people were killed
and more than 100 others injured.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed more than
37,000 lives since the PKK, blacklisted as a
terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the
European Union, took up arms in 1984.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France.
About half of all Kurds which estimate to 20 million
live in Turkey
Officially the Kurdish flag flown in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence
Source:
AFP
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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