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Two Turkish soldiers killed in landmine blast
15.5.2007 |
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May
15, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Two Turkish soldiers were killed on
Tuesday when they stepped on a landmine laid by
Kurdish rebels in countryside in southeast Turkey,
security sources said.
A lieutenant and a sergeant died in the blast in
Kurdish Diyarbakir province during operations
against guerrillas from the separatist Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK).
The explosion occurred late Monday near the town of
Dicle town in Diyarbakir province when the army was
conducting a security sweep against the separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the sources said.
Anti-rebel operations have been stepped up amid
warmer weather in the mainly Kurdish region as
militants cross the border from mountain hideouts in
Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
Military authorities sent more land and air forces
to the region after Tuesday's incident.
Several thousand soldiers, supported by F-16 jets,
were taking part in operations near the Iraqi border
in the mountains of Sirnak province.
Military hardware destined for the operation was
being loaded onto trains at the railway station at
Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's southeast.
More than 30,000 people have died in the separatist
conflict since the PKK took arms in 1984 with the
aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the mainly
Kurdish southeast southeast of the country.
The fighting tailed off after the capture and
jailing of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999, but
clashes have intensified again in recent years.
Reuters | 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 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, 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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