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Kurd PKK rebels release kidnapped villagers in
Turkey
6.8.2007 |
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August
6, 2007
Diyarbakir, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Kurdish rebels released nine villagers in
southeast Turkey overnight, five days after
kidnapping them
near the border with Iranian-Kurdistan, security
officials said on Monday.
Teams from the paramilitary gendarmerie police were
taking statements from the nine, including four
children, who were kidnapped on July 31 by Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas in Van province.
Officials reported the villagers as saying that
10-15 militants had been involved. Initial reports
said the rebels had taken eight people, but the
number rose to nine after a man told gendarmes his
son had gone missing too.
Turkish forces are building up in southeast Turkey,
fuelling speculation they may mount a cross-border
operation against thousands of PKK militants
believed to be based in the Kurdistani (northern
Iraq) mountains.
Three Turkish soldiers were killed on Saturday when
their vehicle was blown up by a remote controlled
explosive device laid by the rebels in the eastern
province of Tunceli amid a heavy wave of fighting in
the region.
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.
Fighting subsided after the capture of the group's
leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in 1999 but has flared up
again in recent years.
Reuters
**
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.
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.
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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