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Turkish president visits mainly Kurdish
southeast regions
12.9.2007 |
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September 12, 2007
Diyarbakir, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Turkey's new president Abdullah Gul set
out for the country's mainly Kurdish east and
southeast Tuesday on a first regional visit since
taking office last month, officials said.
Gul's visit appeared to be a gesture to the
country's Kurdish community whose ties with the
central government in Ankara have been overshadowed
by a 23-year insurgency by separatist Kurdish
rebels.
Gul's first stop will be the eastern province of
Van, before continuing to the southeastern provinces
of Hakkari, Sirnak, Siirt and Diyarbakir, the
largest city in the region. He will return to Ankara
on Friday.
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Turkish president Abdullah Gül |
The president will meet local officials,
non-governmental organizations and visit military
garrisons in the region where Kurdish rebels have
been fighting a bloody rebellion for self-rule.
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. Turkey is home to over
25 million ethnic Kurds.
Turkey, United States and the European Union class
the PKK as a "terrorist organisation"
The conflict has displaced thousands, wreaked havoc
on regional economy and led to allegations of gross
human rights abuses on both sides.
Ankara has in recent years -- under European Union
pressure to improve its human rights record --
granted the Kurdish minority a measure of cultural
freedom and lifted emergency rule in the southeast.
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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