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Kurdish PKK rebels kill 7 pro-Turkish
guards in Turkey ambush
30.9.2007 |
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September
30, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Kurdish separatists fired shots at a bus
in southeastern Turkey, killing 12 people and
wounding two others, local officials said Sunday.
The incident happened Saturday near the town of
Beytussebab in Sirnak province not far from the
Iraqi Kurdistan border, a statement issued by Sirnak
officials said. The bus carried a total of 14
people.
Seven Village Guard militiamen were among the dead.
Village guards are pro-Turkish Kurdish paramilitary
units (Jash) armed by the central government in
Ankara to protect villages in the mainly Kurdish
southeast of the country from attacks by rebels of
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The statement said the army had launched a manhunt
to capture the gunmen.
The attack was the deadliest by the PKK in the
predominantly Kurdish-populated southeast in the
last couple of years. The group is listed as a
terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union
and the United States.
Ankara believes that thousands of PKK rebels, backed
by Iraqi Kurds who are allies of the United States
in their war-torn country, are using northern Iraq
as a base for attacks in southeastern Turkey.
The number of such attacks has increased since the
start of the year.
The PKK has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey's
mainly Kurdish areas since 1984 in a conflict that
has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
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)
wikipedia
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