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Turkish police arrest 26 university students in
anti-PKK rebel sweep
25.5.2007 |
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May
25, 2007
ANKARA, -- Police arrested 26 people, mostly
university students, in central Turkey in a sweep
aimed at rebels belonging to the separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), media reported on
Friday.
Eight of the arrested are women who were preparing
attacks, local authorities were quoted by the
Anatolia news agency as saying.
The operation follows a suicide attack in Ankara
Tuesday which killed six people.
PKK, which is considered a terrorist organisation by
Turkey, the European Union and the United States,
denied any involvement in the attack.
But Turkish officials said the method of the bomb
attack and the type of explosives used tallied with
past practices of the PKK.
Ankara urged Baghdad Thursday to act against the PKK
holed up in Kurdistan mountain of northern Iraq.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the PKK, blacklisted by Turkey, the United
States and the European Union, took up arms for
self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast
of Turkey.
PKK is classified by the European Union and the
United States as a terrorist organisation
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.
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
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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