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Turkish police foil Kurdish rebel bomb
attack
19.3.2007
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March 19, 2007
ISTANBUL, -- Turkish police said Monday they
had detained 12 suspected Kurdish rebels and seized
11.7 kilos (25.7 pounds) of plastic explosives
believed intended for attacks against industrial
facilities.
In a statement carried by the Anatolia news agency,
police said the suspected members of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were detained last
week.
They were arrested in simultaneous operations in
Istanbul and the neighbouring province of Kocaeli,
in the country's northwest.
A search of the suspects' homes and cars led to the
seizure of the explosives, 10 detonators and illicit
documents, the statement added.
The suspects were planning to attack facilities in
Kocaeli, the country's industrial heartland, ahead
of Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, on March 21, the
NTV news channel said.
Newroz has become an occasion for Turkey's Kurdish
minority to demand greater freedoms or demonstrate
support for the PKK. Celebrations have been marred
by bloodshed in the past.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
The group, listed as a terrorist organization by
Ankara and much of the international community,
called a unilateral ceasefire on October 1 last
year, saying it hoped to pave the way for a peaceful
resolution of the conflict.
The truce, like previous ones called by the rebels,
was rejected by Turkey but fighting has decreased
markedly since then.
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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