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Two Turkish gendarme killed in mine blast
27.9.2007 |
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September
27, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Two Turkish gendarme officers were killed
when a mine laid by Kurdish PKK
separatists exploded in Bitlis province in mainly
Kurdish eastern Turkey, security sources said on
Thursday.
The deaths come days after a bomb was detonated
outside a police outpost in the province of Tunceli,
killing one security official and injuring four
others.
Four militants from the illegal Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) were also killed in a fire fight on
Tuesday.
Turkish troops have stepped up operations against
the separatist PKK ahead of the winter, when
violence tends to subside in the mountainous region.
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.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organisation by
the European Union, and the United States and
Turkey.
Reuters
**
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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