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Police, hundreds of Kurdish protestors
clash in Turkey
26.11.2007
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Turkish Police Use Tear Gas Against Kurdish
Protesters
November 26, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of Turkey,
-- Turkish police on Sunday used tear gas to
disperse hundreds of Kurds demonstrating here in
favour of separatist rebels fighting the government,
an AFP correspondent said.
About 40,000 people attended a rally organised by
the Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) to
denounce legal action seeking the group's closure.
The rally in Diyarbakir, the largest city of the
mainly Kurdish southeast, turned ugly when about
1,000 protestors marched towards the office of a
nationalist opposition party and hurled stones at
the building and security forces.
Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and
detained several people.
Demonstrators shouted slogans in favour of the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its
jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, brandishing portraits
of the rebel chief and flags of green, yellow and
red, the traditional Kurdish colours.
"The youth are Apo's guards," the participants
chanted at the rally, using Ocalan's nickname. "The
PKK is the people, the people are here," they
shouted.
Turkey's chief prosecutor last week asked the
Constitutional Court to outlaw the DTP, arguing that
the party, through its links with the PKK, had
become threat to the country's unity. www.ekurd.net
The DTP holds 20 seats in the 550-member Turkish
parliament.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly
urged the party to sever its alleged links with the
PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by Ankara
and much of the international community.
The PKK has waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in
the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey since 1984. The
conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Faced with mounting rebel violence, the government
has threatened military action in neighbouring
Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', where the PKK has
bases, if the United States and Iraq fail to curb
the group.
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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