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Dutch police arrest alleged Kurdish PKK
member wanted in France
10.9.2007 |
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September 10, 2007
THE HAGUE, -- Dutch authorities have arrested
a member of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
wanted in France for allegedly financing and
organising the group's activities, prosecutors said
Sunday.
"He will be extradited to France," prosecutors said
in a statement.
The 29-year-old had been hiding among supporters and
was arrested Saturday night in De Lier in the west
of the country, it said.
When he was arrested in France in February,
authorities had also seized a semi-automatic weapon.
He had been released from custody in France, but was
prohibited from leaving the Paris region and was
required to report to police once per week.
He disappeared in late August, resulting in Paris
issuing an arrest warrant.
The outlawed PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation
by Turkey, the United States and the European Union,
has stepped up its military activity this year.
The group has been fighting for self-rule in
Turkey's mainly Kurdish areas in the east and
southeast since 1984 in a bloody conflict that has
claimed more than 37,000 lives. Turkey is home to
over 25 million ethnic Kurds.
AFP
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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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