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Kurdish PKK rebels derail train in Turkey
24.9.2007 |
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September
24, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Kurdish separatists derailed a freight
train in an attack in eastern Turkey that wounded
four engineers, a security source said Monday.
The attack was carried out late Sunday at Elazig,
the security source said.
The rebels laid a mine under the track that derailed
the train and then opened fire with high-powered
rifles, the source said.
The four wounded were all in the locomotive or the
wagons that were being pulled.
The banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is
fighting for a Kurdish state in southeast Turkey,
regularly attacks goods trains in the region.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds.
The Kurdish conflict has left more than 37,000 dead
since the PKK rebellion started in 1984.
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)
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