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PKK denies attack by Turkish troops in
Iraqi Kurdistan
1.12.2007
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December 1, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- A
senior leader of the Turkey's rebel Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) on Saturday denied claims by
the Turkish army that it had attacked the guerrillas
in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' with air strikes and
artillery.
"There are no clashes with the Turkish army," said
the official, reached by telephone at a rebel base
near the Iraq-Turkey frontier from Erbil,www.ekurd.net
capital of Iraq's
autonomous Kurdistan region.
"Our area is quiet. Nothing has happened. There are
no air strikes nor any artillery shells," added the
official, who asked not to be named.
"There has been no crossing of Turkish troops into
the Kurdistan region."
The Turkish army said it had inflicted "heavy
losses" on a group of around 50 members of the
separatist movement in northern Iraq earlier in the
day.
It said it used artillery and air strikes against a
group of "50 to 60 terrorists" southeast of the
Turkish town of Cukurca in Hakkari province on the
Turkey-Iraqi Kurdistan border.
www.ekurd.net
"If necessary other army units will intervene in the
region," it added.
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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