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6 Kurdish rebels, 1 Turkish soldier killed in clash
in the Kurdish region of southeast Turkey
16.4.2007 |
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April
16, 2007
ANKARA, Turkey, -- Turkish troops killed six
armed Kurdish guerrillas in a clash in southeast
Turkey, the government-owned Anatolia news agency
reported Monday. One Turkish soldier was also
killed.
The clash broke out in the predominantly Kurdish
province of Tunceli when a group of rebels opened
fire on the soldiers, ignoring calls for them to
surrender, Anatolia said.
The deaths bring to 23 the number of guerrillas
killed in the past 10 days in clashes in Turkey's
southeast. Eleven soldiers have also been killed in
fighting in the same period.
Last week, the head of Turkey's armed forces said
several large-scale offensives against the rebels
had been launched in the southeast of the country,
and requested permission to launch an operation into
northern Iraq to attack the guerrillas at their
bases there.
Close to 40,000 people have died in fighting since
autonomy-seeking rebels of the Kurdistan Workers
Party, or PKK, took up arms against the Turkish
state in 1984.
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.
AP
** 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.
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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