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Kurdish PKK rebels deny responsibility for Turkey
bomb blast
17.6.2007 |
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June
17, 2007
ANKARA, -- Kurdish rebels on Saturday denied
responsibility for a
bomb blast that wounded seven
people in Turkey's main Kurdish city the previous
day, a news agency close to the militants reported.
"Kurdish forces have nothing to do with the blast,"
said a statement quoted by the Firat agency, widely
regarded as the mouthpiece of the separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The bomb, hidden in the saddle of a bicycle,
exploded Friday morning near a bus stop in the
centre of Diyarbakir often used by soldiers. One of
those injured was a soldier.
"The way the incident happened and the type of
explosive used indicates who did it," Interior
Minister Osman Gunes said, in an apparent reference
to the PKK, which has notably stepped up attacks
this year.
He said a detailed statement would be made after the
police completed their investigation.
The Turkish army has launched a large-scale
crackdown against the PKK in the east and southeast
and amassed troops at the border with Iraq, where
the militants take refuge.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by
Ankara and much of the international community, 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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