|
Erdogan: Rebel Kurdish faction behind
deadly Turkey blast 16.9.2006
|
|
|
|
DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan-Turkey, September 15, -- A radical faction
of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party appears to
have been behind a deadly bombing in southeast
Turkey, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Erdogan said
on Friday.
Erdogan told journalists that Tuesday's attack, in
which 10 people died, did not appear to have been
carried out by the
Turkish nationalist group calling itself the
Turkish Revenge Brigade (Turkish: “Turk Intikam
Tugayi”, “TIT”) that has claimed responsibility.
Asked whether Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
separatists were responsible, the prime minister
replied: "At the moment it would seem that yes, the
investigations point to them."
A shadowy nationalist Turkish group, the Turkish
Revenge Brigade, had claimed responsibility for the
blast, vowing on its website to avenge the killings
of Turks by the PKK, which has stepped up violence
this year.
Earlier Friday a senior minister was quoted as
saying "hardliners within the PKK" were responsible
for the attack on Tuesday evening at a crowded park
in Diyarbakir.
And police also pointed the finger of suspicion at
the PKK, which has fought for Kurdish self-rule in
the southeast since 1984 and is blacklisted as a
terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union and
the United States.
"All evidence we have obtained, all analyses by bomb
experts... show that the incident is very similar to
other attacks the separatist terrorist group has
carried out in the region and point at them as the
perpetrators," police spokesman Ismail Caliskan told
a news conference in Ankara.
He explained that the same type of explosives and
the walkie-talkie used in the bomb had been used in
at least three PKK attacks on the security forces in
the Diyarbakir region earlier this year.
Caliskan said the probe into the details of the
attack was continuing.
The blast killed 10 people, most of them children,
and left 14 others injured, adding to tensions in
the southeast at a time when stability is crucial
for Turkey's bid to join the European Union.
It came a day after Turkey's main Kurdish party, the
Democratic Society Party (DTP), appealed to the PKK
to call a ceasefire.
Officials have said the bomb -- a homemade
remote-control device planted in a flask -- went off
while it was being carried to another location,
suggesting that the park was not the intended
target.
Even though the authorities have played down the
claim as an attempt for publicity, Kurdish
protesters staged violent demonstrations in
Diyarbakir Thursday, accusing the government of
covering up the identities of those responsible.
Separately, eight people died in clashes between
Kurdish separatists and pro-government militia
members in eastern Turkey on Friday.
The dead included six PKK rebels, one soldier and
one militia member in a rural area close to Ercis
about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Iranian
border, a security official said.
Army reinforcements have been sent to the area.
The PKK has increased attacks on the security forces
this year after it called off a five-year unilateral
ceasefire in June 2004.
Kurdish militants have also claimed 16 bombings
across Turkey, including attacks in tourist resorts
in the west, which killed a total of 12 people and
injured about 200, according to an AFP count.
More than 37,000 people have died since the start of
the PKK's armed campaign in 1984.
AFP
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
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 