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Turkey puts up buffer zones along Iraqi
Kurdistan border
7.10.2007 |
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October
7, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- More buffer zones designed to prevent
Kurdish rebels crossing over the border to and from
Iraq have been established in southeastern Turkey,
the Turkish military said Saturday.
The 27 zones set up in the regions of Sirnak, Siirt
and Hakkari add to others created in June, the
military said in a statement posted on its official
website.
They are to stay in place until December 10 and are
aimed at stopping the flow of Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) rebels using northern Iraq as a rear
base for operations for southern Turkey, it said.
At the same time, security officials in the
southeast said a big army sweep was underway to find
Kurdish rebels who used heavy weapons to attack a
military post in Baskale, near the border with Iran.
A soldier was killed in the attack.
Turkey, the European Union and the United States
consider the PKK a terrorist organisation. More than
37,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up
arms in 1984 to fight for an independent Kurdish
state.
AFP
**
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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