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Explosion in Turkey's main Kurdish city of
Diyarbakir injures five
15.6.2007 |
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June
15, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- An explosion Friday in the centre of
Diyarbakir, the main city in the mainly Kurdish
southeastern Turkey, has left a number of people
injured, local security sources said.
According to Reuters the bomb injured four civilians
and a soldier, security officials said.
Diyarbakir, a city of around one million people, is
a hotbed of Kurdish separatist militancy.
Tensions are running especially high amid mounting
clashes between Turkish troops and separatist
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas in mainly
Kurdish southeastern Turkey.
The clashes have fuelled talk of a possible major
Turkish army incursion into Kurdistan region
(northern Iraq) to attack PKK bases there.
The police launched an operation in Diyarbakir --
the largest city in the restive southeast --after
the blast and bomb experts tried to determine what
type of explosive had caused it.
Officials said it was a time bomb that detonated
earlier than planned, preventing a disaster. One
person was seriously injured.
Turkey's military recently sent tens of thousands of
troops, as well as tanks and other military
equipment, to the border area with Iraqi Kurdistan
-- a move which has worried the international
community given the relative stability of northern
Iraq.
Turkey's top generals have urged the government to
authorize a cross-border incursion to crush the PKK
rebels. The United States strongly opposes such an
operation.
Iraq's foreign minister urged Ankara on Thursday to
rely on dialogue with Iraqi authorities, the United
States and the regional government in the
semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.
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.
AFP | Reuters
** 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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