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Two paramilitary police killed in east Turkey
26.6.2007 |
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June
26, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Two Turkish paramilitary policeman
have been killed in separate mine attacks blamed on
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas, security
officials said on Tuesday.
One member of the gendarme police force -- which
fights PKK militants in eastern Turkey alongside the
army -- was killed when he stepped on a mine in the
southeastern province of Sirnak late on Monday.
Another was killed in a similar blast in the eastern
province of Agri early on Tuesday, the officials
said.
Dozens of soldiers and paramilitaries have been
killed this year in an escalation of violence
between the PKK, which has been fighting for an
ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern
of Turkey since 1984, and Turkish forces.
That has led to calls from the army for an operation
into northern Iraq to deal with Kurdish rebels based
there but while the government has said it agrees
with the army and an operation could be launched, it
has not reconvened parliament to approve such a
move.
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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