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Twelve Turkish soldiers wounded in landmine attack
in southeast Turkey
13.8.2007 |
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August
13, 2007
Diyarbakir, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Twelve soldiers were wounded Sunday in a
landmine explosion in southeast Turkey blamed on
separatist Kurdish rebels, military officials said.
The blast occurred on a rural road in Siirt province
when militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
detonated a remote-control landmine while two
vehicles carrying soldiers were passing, the sources
said.
Landmine attacks have become a hallmark of PKK
violence as the group, listed as a terrorist
organisation by Ankara and much of the international
community, notably stepped up attacks this year.
The army has launched a large-scale crackdown
against the rebels in the east and southeast of the
country and amassed troops on the border with Iraq,
where the PKK takes refuge.
The PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
Kurdish-majority region in 1984. The conflict has
claimed more than 37,000 lives.
AFP
**
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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