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Turkey bans "negative" broadcasts on
Kurdish PKK rebel attack
23.10.2007
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October
23, 2007
ANKARA, -- The government on Tuesday ordered
Turkey's RTUK broadcasting watchdog to ban
"negative" radio and television broadcasts
concerning a Turkey's Kurdish rebel attack at the
weekend that killed 12 soldiers dead.
The government order cited national security
concerns.
The prime minister can, by law, stop certain
broadcasts "in situations in which national security
clearly requires it or in which public order is
strongly likely to be disrupted."
RTUK cited a letter by Deputy Prime Minister Cemil
Cicek, who is also the government spokesman,
ordering a ban on "broadcasts related to the
terrorist attack likely to have negative impact on
public order and morale... by creating an impression
of weakness concerning the security forces."
Militants of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) ambushed a military unit near the Iraqi border
on Sunday, killing 12 troops and capturing eight
others.
The army confirmed Monday that the Turkish soldiers
were missing and said 34 Kurdish PKK militants had
been killed in ensuing clashes in the region.
Ankara has threatened a military incursion into
northern Iraq, where the PKK has bases, if Baghdad
and Washington fail to purge the rebels from the
region.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara, US
an EU.
The PKK, the Turkish acronym for the Kurdistan
Workers Party, contends that the government has
oppressed minority Kurds for decades.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
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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