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Kurdish PKK militants kidnap 7 pro-Turkish
village guards in east Turkey
12.11.2007
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November 12, 2007
TUNCELI, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Turkey's Kurdish separatist militants
have kidnapped seven people including two
state-sponsored (Pro-Turkish) village guards ( Jash
in Kurdish) in the eastern province of Van, security
officials said on Monday.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants blocked
a bridge leading to the village of Ogulveren near
the border with Iran and kidnapped the two guards
and five other young men late on Sunday, the sources
said.
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.
Amid an escalation of violence between the PKK and
security forces, Ankara is weighing a cross-border
operation into Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' to crush
guerrillas using the neighbouring country as a base.
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)
wikipedia
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