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Turkish jets bombed Turkey's Kurdish PKK
rebel positions in Iraqi Kurdistan 24.10.2007
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October
24, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish
separatist camps in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'
on Sunday shortly after an attack by the rebels
killed 12 Turkish soldiers, newspapers quoted a
senior minister as saying Wednesday.
F-16 jets flew up to 50 kilometres (31 miles) into
Iraqi airspace to pound Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
bases in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq', Deputy Prime
Minister Cemil Cicek told ruling party colleagues,
the Huriyet newspaper reported.
Some 300 ground troops advanced about 10 km, killing
34 rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),
the sources said.
Heavy artillery also pounded rebel positions inside
the Kurdistan autonomous north of Iraq, Cicek said. |
Turkish F-16 jets flew up to 50 kilometres (31
miles) into Iraqi airspace to pound Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) bases in Kurdistan 'northern
Iraq' |
Turkey shells Turkey's Kurd
rebels in Iraqi Kurdistan
Turkish troops have shelled suspected Turkey's
Kurdish-PKK rebel positions in Iraqi Kurdistan, a
Turkish government official said Wednesday, as
military and civilian leaders were expected to
discuss the scope and duration of a cross-border
incursion.
Turkish artillery units were shelling rebel
positions as late as Tuesday night in 'northern
Iraq', a government official said on condition of
anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to
the media.
The sources said 34 rebels of the outlawed PKK
(Kurdistan Workers Party) had been killed in the
sorties. All Turkish troops involved in the
operations had returned to Turkey.
Turkey, which has massed troops on the border,
warned Iraq and Western allies on Tuesday that an
attack was imminent unless the U.S.-backed
government in Baghdad takes action. Officials also
said there would be no cease-fire with the
separatist fighters.
Tensions between Baghdad and Ankara have risen since
Sunday's ambush on a Turkish military patrol along
the tense Iraqi Kurdistan border in which 12
soldiers and 34 PKk rebels were killed, according to
an official toll.
Eight soldiers are missing and the PKK has said it
is holding them hostage.
The Turkish government last week obtained
parliamentary authorization to carry out
cross-border strikes into northern Iraq to hit PKK
rebels who have been waging a bloody separatist
campaign since 1984 for self-rule in the country's
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
AFP | AP | Reuters
**
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)
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