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Up to 175 Kurdish PKK rebels killed in
Turkish air strike: military
25.12.2007
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December
25, 2007
ANKARA, -- Between 150 and 175 Turkey's
Kurdish PKK rebels were killed in a Turkish air
strike in Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq' on
December 16, the Turkish military said Tuesday.
"It is understood that between 150 and 175
terrorists... were rendered ineffective," the
general staff said in a statement on its web site.
"The figure does not include the terrorists who were
rendered ineffective as a result of hideouts or
caves collapsing in the air raid," it said.
"It has been determined that many terrorists were
also taken to hospitals in Erbil, Raniyah, Kaladiza
and Choman in the north of Iraq," it added.
The December 16 bombing targeted positions in
northern Iraq along the Turkish border and the
Qandil mountains to the east.
It was the first Turkish air strike against Turkey's
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in the region
since parliament authorised in October cross-border
military action against the rebel group.
It was followed by a second air raid on December 22,
which the army said Tuesday targeted "hideouts and
anti-aircraft positions belonging to the PKK."
Since then, officials in Kurdistan region in
'northern Iraq' have reported two other Turkish air
raids, including a brief one on Tuesday, which the
Turkish army has not confirmed.
The December 16 strike, which was the largest and
was backed by artillery fire on the ground,
destroyed all of its targets, Tuesday's statement
said.
They included 16 command, training and logistical
bases as well as 182 hideouts, 10 anti-aircraft
defence positions and 14 ammunition depots of the
PKK, the statement said.
Iraqi Kurdistan 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',www.ekurd.net
Turkey fears this could
fan separatism among its own large Kurdish
population in southeast Turkey.
Over 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
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, granting them full
political freedoms.
The United States and the European Union, like
Turkey, class the PKK freedom fighters as a
"terrorist organisation"
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, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community 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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