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Turkish army encircles 100 Turkey's
Kurdish PKK rebels
29.10.2007
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October
29, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkish forces have encircled 100
Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels in a mountainous area
near the border with Iraqi Kurdistan region, the
Anatolia news agency reported on Monday.
Turkish army units had blocked off routes used by
the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels
to return to their bases in Kurdistan 'northern
Iraq' after carrying out attacks in Turkey, the
report said.
The operation in the Yuksekova region of
southeastern Turkey came a day after the Turkish
army killed 15 PKK rebels and as Ankara geared up
for crucial talks with the United States to tackle
the crisis over the bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The militants were killed in a large-scale operation
in the mountainous eastern province of Tunceli as
some 8,000 troops, backed by helicopter gunships,
assaulted rebel positions.
The military has killed 65 rebels since a PKK ambush
near the frontier a week ago left 12 soldiers dead.
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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