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Gunshot fired at Turkey's main pro-Kurdish
DTP political party in Turkish capital
3.10.2007 |
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October
3, 2007
ANKARA, -- An unknown assailant fired a
gunshot at the headquarters of Turkey's main
pro-Kurdish political party on Wednesday but nobody
was hurt, party officials said.
The incident came a day after two bomb blasts in the
Aegean city of Izmir which killed one person and
injured nearly a dozen others. No one has claimed
responsibility for the attack, but Turkish media
have blamed it on armed Kurdish separatists.
The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) is
also at loggerheads with Turkey's powerful and
respected army generals, who accuse it of backing
terrorism through its refusal to condemn the Kurdish
rebel guerrillas.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has also urged the
DTP, which has 20 members in the parliament, to
denounce the rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK).
Senior DTP official Mustafa Sarikaya told Reuters:
"This attack is the result of state officials and
the media targeting our party."
The gunman escaped by car after firing the shot, the
DTP officials said. Police found a 9 mm cartridge
case at the scene, in an Ankara suburb.
The DTP, which seeks more freedoms for Turkey's
large ethnic Kurdish minority, says it rejects
violence but many Turks regard it as just a
mouthpiece for the PKK rebels.
Reuters
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
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" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 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.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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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