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Kurdish group threatens to target Turkey's
tourist areas
4.3.2007 |
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Kurdish group warned
European visitors to stay away from Turkey
March 4, 2007
ANKARA, March 4, -- A Kurdish rebel group
claiming responsibility for past bomb attacks in
Turkey has threatened to hit tourist targets and
warned European visitors to stay away, the
pro-Kurdish Firat news agency reported Sunday.
In a statement posted on the Internet site of the
Europe-based agency, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK)
recalled the arrest last month of 15 suspected
Kurdish rebels in France and Belgium, and accused
European countries of cracking down on Kurds to
safeguard their economic interests in Turkey.
"Turkey's refusal to give up on its policy of denial
and annihilation of the Kurds and the participation
of European countries in this policy will lead to
the targeting of tourists and tourist facilities in
Turkey," the statement said.
Turkish officials say TAK is a front which the
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a separatist group
seeking self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish
southeast, uses for attacks on civilian targets. The
PKK claims TAK is a splinter group over which it has
no control.
"When we target Turkish tourism, we will especially
target European tourists," the TAK statement said.
"That is why we are now warning tourists against
coming to Turkey."
The tourism sector, which brought in 16.85 billion
dollars (12.7 billion euros) last year, is a vital
source of foreign revenue for Turkey, whose economy
is recovering from severe financial crises in 1999
and 2001.
TAK has claimed responsibility for several deadly
bomb attacks in Turkey's urban centres and tourist
areas, the worst of which killed five people
including a Britain and an Irishwoman in the Aegean
resort of Kusadasi in 2005.
Last year, the group said it was also behind a spate
of bombings to hit tourist resorts in western Turkey
which injured several foreign tourists.
More than 30,000 Turkish soldiers and 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.
PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by
Turkey, the European Union and the United States,
took up arms against the Turkish government
AFP
** 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 as many as 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 some 20 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
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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