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Ten Kurdish rebels killed in Turkey clashes
30.5.2007 |
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May
30, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Ten Kurdish rebels were killed in
southeastern Turkey as the army intensified
operations against the separatist Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK), officials said Tuesday.
Seven militants were killed in clashes in the
mountains of Siirt province in a security sweep
after a landmine explosion blamed on the PKK killed
seven soldiers last week in neighbouring Sirnak
province, the Siirt governor's office said.
Officials said another three rebels were shot dead
when fighting erupted late Monday near Muradiye, in
Van province in eastern Turkey, after security
forces received a tip-off that three rebels coming
from neighbouring Iran would pass through the town,
security sources said.
The Turkish army has been conducting large-scale
operations against the PKK in the east and southeast
of the country since the start of spring, as milder
weather eases the movement of militants holed up in
the mountains.
Police also stepped up operations against the PKK in
urban centres since a suicide bomber, believed to be
a PKK member, blew himself up in central Ankara last
week, killing six people and wounding 121.
Turkey says thousands of PKK rebels have found a
safe haven in neighbouring northern Iraq, where they
obtain weapons and explosives for attacks on Turkish
targets across the border.
More than 37,000 people have died since the PKK,
blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey and much
of the international community, took up arms in 1984
for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish east and
southeast of the country.
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.
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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