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Turkey: Foreign minister's cousin killed
in Kurdish PKK rebel attack 19.9.2007 |
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September 19, 2007
TUNCELI, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- One Turkish security official was killed
and leaving another injured, when a group of Kurdish
militants attacked gendarme headquarters in
southeastern Turkey late on Tuesday, security
officials said.
The militants escaped, officials said.
According to AKI website, the Turkish soldier has
been identified as foreign minister Ali Babacan’s
cousin. Private Erkut Babacan, who was was serving
in Cetlikli, died when PKK militants attacked the
military outpost.
Babacan has not made any statement about the
incident yet.
The violence came after the Turkish military
launched a 10,000-soldier offensive earlier this
week against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
operating in neighbouring provinces.
The security forces launched an operation in the
province of Bitlis to hunt down the perpetrators,
who belonged to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK), the report said.
The PKK took up arms against the state in 1984 with
the aim of carving out an ethnic homeland in the
mainly southeast Turkey.
More than 37,000 people have died in the conflict,
which subsided for several years after the capture
of the group's leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by
Turkey, US and EU, notably stepped up violence this
year.
Reuters | AFP | AKI
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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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