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Three Kurdish rebels killed in southeast
Turkey
2.4.2007 |
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April 2, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkish soldiers killed three
militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) during clashes in the country's restive
Kurdish southeast, local officials said Sunday.
The fighting broke out during a security operation
in the Bestler region in Sirnak province which
borders Iraq and Syria, the Sirnak governor's office
said in a statement, carried by the Anatolia news
agency.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by
Ankara and much of the international community,
called a unilateral ceasefire on October 1, saying
it hoped to pave the way for a peaceful resolution
of the conflict with Ankara.
The truce, like previous ones called by the rebels,
was rejected by Turkey, but fighting has decreased
markedly since then.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
mainly Kurdish southeast.
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
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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