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Rights group says 225 killed in Turkey unrest in
six months
14.7.2007 |
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July
14, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- A total of 225 people died in Turkey in
escalating violence between Turkish forces and armed
Kurdish rebels in the first half of 2007, the
country's main human rights watchdog said Friday.
The announcement came as officials said two Turkish
troops and two rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in fresh fighting.
"We see a serious increase in the number of daily
clashes," Mihdi Perinçek, the Human Rights
Association (IHD) representative for the mainly
Kurdish east and southeast of Turkey, told a press
conference here.
"We are also concerned that clashes are spreading
across the region," he said.
A tally compiled by the IHD from officials and
independent sources said 111 members of the security
forces, 109 PKK rebels and five civilians were
killed in the region from January to June.
This compared with 190 people killed in the
corresponding period of 2006, the IHD said.
On its Internet website, the Turkish general staff
said 100 PKK rebels were killed between April and
June. There were no figures available for the first
three months of the year, or for losses on the
military side.
Violence increased markedly this year as the PKK
stepped up its attacks and the army responded with
large-scale operations to hunt down the rebels as it
massed troops on the border with Iraq, where the
militants take refuge.
Security sources here said Friday that a soldier was
killed in a clash late Thursday with PKK rebels in
the eastern Bingol province.
Another soldier was killed, and one wounded in a
land mine explosion blamed on the PKK late Thursday
in neighbouring Erzincan province, also in the east,
the local governor's office said.
Turkish soldiers shot dead two PKK rebels late
Thursday in the southeastern Hakkari province, which
borders Iraq and Iran, the governor's office said.
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 United States and the European Union, like
Turkey, class the PKK as a "terrorist organisation"
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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