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Anti-government protests at funerals of Turkish
soldiers
12.6.2007 |
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June
12, 2007
ANKARA, -- Thousands of people chanted
anti-government slogans at the funerals Monday of
three soldiers killed by Kurdish rebels, raising
pressure on the government for tougher action
against the insurgents.
"Government out!", "AKP out!" the mourners chanted
as several senior ministers and members of the
ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) arrived
for one of the funerals here.
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and chief of general
staff General Yasar Buyukanit also attended the
ceremony at the packed yard of Ankara's largest
mosque, but Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was
not present.
"Tayyip, send your sons to the army," the protestors
chanted.
Government ministers were further embarrassed when
the wife of the soldier being buried, a major,
refused to shake hands with them, the NTV news
channel reported.
The government has come under fire for failing to
curb the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
since the group, listed as a terrorist organisation
by Ankara and much of the international community,
significantly stepped up violence in the spring.
The army is pushing for a military incursion into
neighbouring northern Iraq, where PKK rebels enjoys
safe haven and, Turkish officials charge, obtain
weapons and explosives for attacks on Turkish
targets across the border.
Facing general elections on July 22, the government
has so far resisted calls for a cross-border
operation to pursue the PKK, which is strongly
opposed by both Iraq and the United States.
"Down with the PKK," "The motherland cannot be
divided," the mourners shouted as they brandished
the red-and-white national flag.
There were similar scenes at the other two funerals
-- in Istanbul and the western city of Manisa.
Thousands booed Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc, a
senior AKP member, in Manisa, his home town, forcing
him to quit a procession marching from the mosque to
the cemetery under the protection of riot police,
media reports said.
The three soldiers, among them a lieutenant colonel,
were killed Saturday when PKK rebels set off a
remote-control landmine in Sirnak province, on
Turkey's southeastern border with Iraq.
Officials said Monday another soldier was killed in
fighting with PKK rebels in the eastern province of
Erzincan.
Violence in the southeast has claimed the lives of
54 members of the security forces and 74 PKK
militants this year, according to army figures.
Seven civilians were killed in May when a suicide
bomber, believed to be a Kurdish militant, blew
himself up at a busy shopping centre in Ankara.
Erdogan on Tuesday was expected to hold a meeting
with senior officials, including General Buyukanit
and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, to review the
security situation in the country, Anatolia news
agency reported.
The PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the
southeast in 1984. The conflict has claimed more
than 37,000 lives.
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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