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Turkish government to discuss response to
Kurdish PKK rebel attacks on Turkish soldiers
8.10.2007 |
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October
8, 2007
ISTANBUL, Turkey,-- Turkey's government was
scheduled to discuss on Monday what to do next in
its struggle against separatist Kurdish PKK rebels
after the guerrillas killed 13 soldiers in an ambush
and troops responded by shelling an area near Iraqi
Kurdistan to try to stop the rebels from escaping
across the border.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a Cabinet
meeting later Monday would take up the issue of
fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK,
and would be followed by an anti-terrorism council
meeting, made up of officials in charge of security.
"Our struggle against terrorism will continue in a
different manner," Erdogan told reporters late
Sunday. He did not elaborate.
Turkey has been pressing Iraq and the United States
to hit PKK bases in the border mountains of
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq', and has considered a
unilateral military operation across the border to
root out the rebels.
The soldiers were killed Sunday in the southeastern
province of Sirnak, not far from where troops and
rebels clashed two days earlier, according to a
statement on the military's Web site. An operation
to track down the rebels was under way, and troops
shelled areas near the border to try to prevent
rebels from reaching their bases in northern Iraq,
the statement said.
The clash "boosted our determination and strength"
to fight terrorism, the military said.
Abdul-Rahman al-Chadarchi, a spokesman for the
Kurdish rebel group, confirmed the attack and said
the rebel fighters sustained no casualties.
Turkey signed a counterterrorism pact with Iraq in
September and had demanded it be allowed to send its
troops to Kurdistan region 'Iraq's north' to pursue
the Kurdish PKK rebels. But Iraq did not agree to
the demand under pressure from the leaders of its
semiautonomous Kurdistan region.
"We are not concerned with this issue because these
clashes and shelling happened inside Turkish
territories. This is a Turkish internal problem,"
Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the government of
Iraq's Kurdistan region, said after Sunday's attack.
Turkey, the European Union and the United States
consider the PKK a terrorist organisation. More than
37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK guerrillas
have been killed since 1984 when the PKK took up
arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey. Turkey is home to over 25
million ethnic Kurds.
Turkey's military on Sunday designated 27 "security
zones" off limits to civilians in
eastern and southeastern regions where the borders
with Iraqi Kurdistan region and Iran converge.
Starting Tuesday, the zones will be in place until
Dec. 10.
The military imposed similar zones earlier in June
in three southeastern provinces to keep civilians
away from the fighting with the PKK.
Some experts have speculated that the zones are part
of preparations for a possible Iraq campaign.
AP
**
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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