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'Turkish Revenge Brigade' claims
responsibility for the bomb attack in Turkey 14.9.2006
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Turkey officials announced
that the bomb exploded by accident, meanwhile the
Turkish ultra-nationalist terrorist group TIT claims
responsibility for the bomb attack in the Kurdish
city of Amed
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdistan-Turkey, September 14, --
Ten people including seven children were killed in
the largest city in Turkey's mainly Kurdish
southeast when a powerful bomb went off accidentally
in a crowded park, officials said Wednesday.
Tuesday's blast was the deadliest in a string of
bombings across Turkey this year. Police said
immediate suspicions fell on the separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been
fighting the government since 1984, but the rebels
denied any role in the blast.
"The preliminary investigation established that the
blast occurred while the home-made remote-control
device, planted in a flask, was being carried (to
another location)," the local governor's office
said.
It give no details about the intended target of the
attack or who the perpetrators were.
The bomb coincided with the first visit to Ankara by
a special US envoy tasked with coordinating joint
efforts against the PKK, listed as a "terrorist"
group by both countries.
The device exploded at around 9:00 pm (1900 GMT)
near a bus stop at a crowded park in Diyarbakir's
poor Baglar district, where tea gardens are a
favorite venue to relax in the evenings.
It was heard throughout the city, shattering the
windows of buildings and opening small cracks in
several walls.
Officials said 14 people were injured. Four of them
were still in hospital Wednesday.
A major police complex is about one kilometer (less
than a mile) from the blast site.
Diyarbakir is a hotbed of activity for the PKK,
which has a solid base in the city of around one
million people.
In a statement posted on its website, the PKK said
it had nothing to do with the bombing and claimed it
was the work of rogue Turkish elements aiming to
create chaos in the region.
A little-known extreme right group calling itself
the Turkish Revenge Brigade (Turkish: “Turk Intikam
Tugayi”, “TIT”) claimed in a statement posted on the
Internet that it had carried out the attack in
retaliation for mounting PKK violence. But police
dismissed this as bid for publicity.
The Dozame.org Kurdish news portal, the "Turkish
Revenge Brigade" which is Turkish ultra-nationalist
terrorist group claimed on their homepage
responsibility for the bomb attack outside a family
park in the Baglar district of Amed (Diyarbakir) in
northern Kurdistan (Kurdistan Turkey), you can find
more information and photos here
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, a radical group over
which the PKK says it has no control, has claimed 15
bombings across Turkey this year. These include
attacks in tourist resorts in the west, which killed
nine people and injured around 200.
Diyarbakir's Kurdish mayor, Osman Baydemir,
condemned Tuesday's blast as a blow to efforts to
restore peace in the southeast, where the 22-year
conflict between Ankara and Kurdish separatists has
claimed more than 37,000 lives.
"This is a provocation. This is a sabotage of
peace," Baydemir said.
The bloodshed came only a day after Turkey's main
Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party, urged
the PKK to call a ceasefire.
The PKK has stepped up violence this year after
calling off a five-year unilateral truce in June
2004.
At least 75 members of the security forces and 104
rebels have been killed in clashes and attacks since
the beginning of the year, according to an AFP
tally.
In Ankara, US envoy Joseph W. Ralston, a former NATO
commander, said "effective measures" were urgently
needed to curb the PKK. He was talking to reporters
after his first talks with Turkish officials in his
role as special coordinator on joint action against
the rebels.
Turkey has long urged its NATO ally to crack down on
PKK bases in neighboring northern Iraq, a
Kurdish-run region which the rebels use as a
springboard for attacks across the border in
southeast Turkey.
Ankara says the PKK enjoys free movement in the
region and easily obtains weapons and explosives
there. It has even threatened a cross-border
operation if the United States and Iraq fail to take
measures.
Tuesday's attack is likely to put further strain on
the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, which has come under mounting criticism for
failing to stop bloodshed in the southeast at a time
when stability is crucial for Turkey's bid to join
the European Union.
AFP | Dozame .org
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
The Kurdish flag flown officially 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"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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