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4 Kurdish PKK rebels killed in fighting
with Turkish forces
3.12.2007
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December
3, 2007
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish troops killed four
Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels in fighting near
Turkey's border with Iraqi Kurdistan region,
officials and media reports said Sunday.
Two of the separatists were killed Saturday in
rugged terrain in Turkey's Sirnak province, on the
border with Iraqi Kurdistan, when troops opened fire
on a group of rebels who ignored calls to surrender
and fired on soldiers, the military said in a
statement posted on its official Web site.
Two other rebels were killed in fighting in the town
of Eruh, in Siirt province, just north of Sirnak,
the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
The agency said the two were "senior" members of the
rebel group allegedly involved in recent attacks on
Turkish troops, but did not elaborate.
A day earlier, the military said it had fired on a
group of about 50 to 60 guerrillas of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party, or PKK, inside Iraqi territory,
inflicting "significant losses."
Turkey has massed tens of thousands of Turkish
troops along the border with Iraqi Kurdistan region
amid a series of attacks by Turkey's Kurdish PKK
insurgents.www.ekurd.net
But some military
officials have said Turkey is more likely to stage
airstrikes and raids by special forces instead of a
large-scale occupation of Iraqi territory that could
carry greater military and political risks.
The United States and Iraq have urged Turkey to
avoid a major operation against PKK bases in
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq', fearing such an operation
would destabilize what has been the calmest region
in the country.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
AP
**
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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