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Kurdish PKK rebels says captive soldiers
held in Turkish territory
26.10.2007
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October
26, 2007
ANKARA, -- The separatist Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) said Thursday through a pro-Kurdish news
agency that eight Turkish soldiers it captured last
Sunday are being held in Turkish territory.
The PKK said in a statement that the soldiers were
being "held in guerrilla areas in northern
Kurdistan" -- PKK parlance for Kurdish-majority
southeast Turkey.
The statement was carried on the Belgium-based Firat
news agency's web site.
The eight soldiers were taken prisoner after an
ambush Sunday against a military unit near the Iraqi
border in which 12 other soldiers were killed.
The news agency, generally seen as a mouthpiece for
the PKK, released photographs of the soldiers on its
Internet site on Tuesday.
Its report said the PKK announcement was in reaction
to a
statement in Ankara by US
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Matthew Bryza, who said the United States was "doing
what it can" to obtain the soldiers' release.
The statement said it had received "requests for
meetings" with the captives but that "such requests
at this stage are inappropriate for the safety of
the soldiers' lives."
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.
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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