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Turkey protests Austria at international
organisations
2.8.2007 |
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August 2, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey has lodged a complaint
against Austria with the OSCE and is preparing to do
the same at the UN after Vienna allowed a wanted
Turkish Kurd rebel leader
'Riza Altun' to travel to
Iraqi Kurdistan instead of
extraditing him to Ankara, Turkish officials said
Wednesday.
"We have received no satisfactory explanation from
Austria concerning the incident," foreign ministry
spokesman Levent Bilman told reporters.
"We have lodged a complaint before the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe... We will
soon lodge a complaint with the United Nations as
well," he said.
Asked whether Turkey could scale down its diplomatic
and economic relations with Austria, Bilman said:
"We are still assessing that."
The man at the centre of the row is Riza Altun, a
founding member and chief financial operator of the
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as
a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European
Union and the United States.
Altun, who is wanted on an Interpol bulletin,
emerged in Austria in July after fleeing France,
where he was indicted in February for suspected
terrorist activities and barred from leaving the
Paris region.
Ankara says the Austrian authorities were aware that
Altun held fake identity documents and was involved
in illegal activities, but still allowed him to
board a plane for Iraqi Kurdistan region, where
believed the PKK enjoys safe haven.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has described
Austria's attitude as "a very big mistake" that
"erodes the foundations of the international
struggle against terrorism."
Ankara is still awaiting a response from Baghdad on
a request to extradite Altun, Bilman said.
Turkey has long accused European countries of
tolerating PKK activities and failing to close down
organisations affiliated to the group.
The Austrian Justice Ministry said in a statement that Altun
was released on July 13, after an investigation
showed that the French authorities had granted him a
type of asylum based on a belief that he would be
persecuted if extradited to Turkey.
Altun, who had lived in France since 2000, left
Austria for Iraq shortly after he was released, the
statement said.
More than 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for a Kurdish homeland in the country's
mainly Kurdish southeast of 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.
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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