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Eight women among 20 Kurdish PKK militants
arrested in Turkey
10.10.2007 |
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October
10, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Turkish police have arrested 20
Kurdish militants for allegedly planning fresh
unrest in the volatile southeast on orders from
rebel commanders based in Iraq, officials said
Wednesday.
The suspects, eight of them women, were arrested at
a border post in Sirnak province after they crossed
into Turkey from Iraq, the local governor's office
said on its web site.
Members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
including senior commanders, have taken refuge in
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' and Ankara said Tuesday it
would order a cross-border operation to crack down
on PKK bases there "if necessary."
Police learnt that the 20 suspects met PKK
commanders in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' and
were ordered to set up a "new structure" of
disobedience against Ankara in the predominantly
Kurdish southeast, the statement said.
"It was understood that they were given orders to...
create an atmosphere of chaos among the people and
prepare for acts against state institutions," it
said.
The suspects were instructed to continue spreading
allegations that PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, serving
a life sentence on a prison island in northwest
Turkey since 1999, is being sytematically poisoned.
Turkish prosecutors investigated the allegations by
Ocalan's lawyers earlier this year and said
toxicology tests showed the claims were "totally
groundless."
Most of the suspects are university students, the
Anatolia news agency reported and are expected to
appear before a judge who will decide whether to
charge them or free them.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara, USA
and EU. 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.
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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