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Iraqi Kurds in remote village fear Turkish
attack on elusive rebels
15.11.2007
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November 15, 2007
KHIZAVA, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- Nervous
Iraqi Kurds in the impoverished village of Khizava
along the border with Turkey are awaiting a Turkish
attack on Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels, although many
believe the guerrillas will prove elusive.
In Khizava, anxiety was palpable when the humming of
a US drone filled the sky above, prompting residents
to strain their ears and look up.
"I'm sure the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party)
fighters are not up there. They have left. They will
not wait to be bombed," said Khaled Hassan, 32.
Hassan and two of his cousins crouched by the side
of the main road leading out of Khizava and onto the
mountain summits, which the PKK use as hideouts
because they are difficult to penetrate.
Iraqi Kurdish policemen and soldiers manned
checkpoints nearby, allowing only villagers to drive
through.
Hassan and his cousins are optimistic that Turkish
tanks will not rumble into the village to hunt down
the PKK.
"We often hear the sound of the guns, but I do not
believe that the Turkish tanks will come this time,"
said Hassan.
"Everything will be fine".
Schoolteacher Abdulmajid, who declined to give his
full name, echoed Hassan's view.
Two weeks ago he accompanied British journalists to
a PKK position where they were met by "only two"
rebels, he said.
"They told us that they had received orders to leave
for the Iranian border or Turkey," said Abdulmajid.
"The Turks will destroy the bases which they know or
those which the Americans will inform them about
thanks to their drones.
"But there will be no one inside. The PKK have
secret positions to fall back on. They will hide and
wait till the end of the storm," he said.
But other residents of Khizava, which is nestled on
the slopes of Mount Sindi a few kilometres (miles)
away from the Turkish border, were not quite so
sure.
s
Jihan Ali, a 31-year-old mother of five, recalled
that the Turkish air force bombed PKK rebels in the
village in 1997.
"Of course, we are afraid of the Turks. If they
attack, we will leave," she said, with the
matter-of-fact look of someone who has fled her home
three times to escape Turkish attacks on PKK bases.
"The last time was in 1997. The PKK rebels had
settled in the village and the planes bombed them,"
she said, as she baked bread for her barefooted
children.
"These PKK men, even if they are defending their
rights, bring only death and misfortune... I hate
them."
Her brother-in-law Edriss Mohammad said he often
comes across PKK rebels on the mountain slopes when
he takes his sheep to graze.
"They can hide well, under the trees or in the
caves. If the Turks attack, they will escape, that's
for sure."
Around 3,500 PKK guerrillas are believed to be
deployed in the rugged mountains bordering Iraqi
Kurdistan, Iran and Turkey, from where they carry
cross-border attacks inside Turkey.
In an October 21 ambush, they killed 12 Turkish
soldiers, angering Ankara which has threatened to
launch a military incursion inside the autonomous
Kurdish-run north of Iraq to flush out the
guerrillas.
Jittery residents from nearby Dashtatakh village
have already fled, leaving behind only elderly, sick
men to look after their homes and to feed the
cattle.
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using
Turkey's 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', Turkey fears
this could fan separatism among its own large
Kurdish population in southeast Turkey. www.ekurd.net
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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