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Turkey: Kurdish rebels kill Turkish officer
14.6.2007 |
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June
14, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Kurdish guerrillas killed a Turkish army
major and injured two other soldiers Wednesday in a
roadside bomb attack in mainly Kurdish southeastern
Turkey, the governor's office said.
The attack near the town of Yuksekova in Hakkari
province, bordering Iraq and Iran, came a day after
the Kurdish separatist group PKK declared a
``unilateral cease-fire'' in attacks against Turkey.
The rebel group, however, on insisted on the right
to defend itself.
Turkey ignored the rebel statement.
The rebels detonated a remote-controlled plastic
bomb as the troops patrolled the area near the town
of Yuksekova, the governor's office said.
The Turkish military has intensified anti-rebel
operations against the guerrillas in the country's
Kurdish southeast, on the border with Kurdistan
(Iraq). On Wednesday, the soldiers were seen manning
several checkpoints as part of the security measures
on the road between the towns of Cizre and Sirnak,
close to the Iraqi border.
The rebels have been fighting more than two decades
for autonomy in Turkey.
More than 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by
Ankara, EU and USA.
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.
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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