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More Turkish troops head to Iraqi
Kurdistan border 22.10.2007
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October
22, 2007
SIRNAK, , Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Dozens of military vehicles headed
toward the Iraqi Kurdistan border and protesters
demanded tough action against Turkey's Kurdish PKK
rebels on Monday, a day after 12 soldiers were
killed in an ambush. The attack has pushed Turkey
closer to a possible incursion into Iraq to target
insurgents hiding there.
An AP Television News cameraman saw a convoy of 50
military vehicles, loaded with soldiers and weapons,
heading from the southeastern Kurdish town of Sirnak
toward Uludere, closer to the border with Iraqi
Kurdistan.
It was unclear whether the vehicles were being sent
to reinforce troops engaged in fighting with rebels
on Turkish soil, or were preparing for possible
cross-border action. Tens of thousands of Turkish
troops are already deployed in the border area.
The pro-Kurdish Firat news agency, based in Belgium,
released seven names that it said were those of
Turkish soldiers allegedly abducted by separatist
fighters in the ambush Sunday. It said an eighth
soldier was also captive but did not release his
name. Turkey's private NTV television has reported
eight soldiers missing, but the government has not
confirmed the report. |
Main road as a military convoy passes in the Kurdish
southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari, bordering
Iraqi Kurdistan region |
The guerrilla ambush that killed a dozen soldiers on
Sunday outraged an already frustrated public, with
nationalists staging demonstrations and opposition
leaders calling for an immediate strike against
rebel bases in Iraqi Kurdistan, despite appeals for
restraint from Iraq, the U.S. and European leaders.
About 2,000 protesters in Istanbul, mostly members
of an opposition party, denounced the attack and
urged the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan to resign, the private Dogan news agency
reported.
Turkey's military said Sunday it had launched an
offensive backed by helicopter gunships in
retaliation for the attack, shelling rebel positions
along the rugged Turkish-Iraqi Kurdistan border. It
said 32 rebels had been killed in the offensive so
far.
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using a
Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an excuse to
invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent the
establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish
autonomous region in 'northern Iraq'.
Ankara is anxious to prevent the emergence of a
Kurdish state in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq',
fearing this could fan separatism among its own
large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
"Turks have Kurdophobia," said Mahmoud Othman, a
member of the Kurdistan Alliance bloc in Iraqi
parliament. "They are afraid of anything Kurdish."
Iraqi Kurds says, the PKK problem is an "internal
Turkish problem,"
The military convoy included trucks carrying
containers full of weapons, around a dozen artillery
guns and some 150 soldiers.
The rebel attack occurred four days after Parliament
authorized the government to deploy troops across
the border in Iraqi Kurdistan region, amid growing
anger in Turkey at perceived U.S. and Iraqi failure
to live up to pledges to crack down on the rebels of
the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, based in
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'.
Mr. Erdogan said he told U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice in a telephone conversation on
Sunday night that Turkey expected “speedy steps from
the U.S.” in cracking down on Kurdish rebels and
that Ms. Rice expressed sympathy and asked “for a
few days” from him.
The United States opposes any unilateral action by
Turkey, fearing it could destabilize the most stable
part of Iraq.
Sunday's attack raised the death toll of soldiers in
PKK attacks in the past two weeks to around 30.
The PKK claimed Sunday it captured a number of
Turkish soldiers. Eight soldiers were missing,
according to private NTV television. There was no
official confirmation of the capture.
Rebels periodically cross the border to stage
attacks in their war for autonomy for Turkey's
predominantly Kurdish southeast. More than 37,000
people have died in the conflict that began in 1984.
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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