|
Police hold four over deadly bombing in
Turkey
4.1.2008
|
|
|
|
January 4, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, --- Police are holding four suspects in
custody in connection with a
car bomb attack
that killed five people and injured 68, Diyarbakir's
chief prosecutor said Friday.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly
attack Thursday on a road in central Diyarbakir,
about 100 metres (yards) from a military facility as
an army vehicle carrying some 50 soldiers was
passing by, but first suspicions fell on the
Turkey's outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK).
Four of the dead were high school students attending
classes at a nearby private school to prepare for
university exams and the wounded include about 30
soldiers, chief prosecutor Durdu Kavak said in a
statement.
"Four people have been taken into custody as part of
efforts to identify and catch the perpetrators.
Several lines of investigation are being pursued,"
the statement said.
The PKK, fighting for self-rule in Turkey's mainly
Kurdish southeast since 1984 and listed as a
terrorist group by much of the international
community, had threatened to retaliate against
Turkish air strikes on its bases in Kurdistan region
'northern Iraq' last month.www.ekurd.net
A large Turkey's Kurdish
community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas, the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, granting them full
political freedoms.
The Turkish media suggested Friday that police
believed Thursday's blast was caused by a plastic
explosive of a type known to be widely used by the
PKK.
As part of stepped up security measures after the
Diyarbakir blast, police in Van, eastern Turkey,
seized 50 kilos (110 pounds) of explosives, grenades
and home-made land mine in a minibus abandoned in an
empty lot, the Anatolia news agency reported. An
investigation was underway.
Turkish army chief Yasar Buyukanit was expected to
fly later Friday into Diyarbakir, the main city in
Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast, to obtain
first-hand information on the explosion and visit
the wounded in hospital, a local security source
said.
Several cabinet ministers -- including Agriculture
Minister Mehdi Eker, himself a Kurd from Diyarbakir
-- are also expected, the source added.
Bomb experts continued to comb the site of the
explosion for clues Friday as municipal workers
began to clean up the debris from the street near a
large shopping mall and the Diyarbakir City Hall, an
AFP correspondent saw.
Grieving relatives buried three of the dead, some of
the mourners condemning the PKK as responsible for
the blast.
Thursday's attack came as the Turkish army, assisted
by US intelligence, stepped up action against PKK
rebels who use neighbouring northern Iraq as a
springboard for cross-border attacks inside Turkey.
The military has confirmed three air strikes on PKK
positions in northern Iraq since December 16, in
addition to a land operation in Kurdistan region in
'northern Iraq' to prevent a group of rebels from
infiltrating Turkey.
Iraqi Kurdistan politician says, Turkey is using
Turkey's Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an
excuse to invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent
the establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish
autonomous region in 'northern Iraq',www.ekurd.net
Turkey fears this could
fan separatism among its own large Kurdish
population in southeast Turkey.
Local Iraqi officials have reported two other air
raids.
At least 150 militants have been killed and more
than 200 PKK positions destroyed in the raids so
far, the Turkish military said.
PKK rebels have been blamed for several bomb attacks
in Diyarbakir and other major cities in the recent
past, including one in June near a bus stop in
central Diyarbakir that wounded seven people.
In 2006, 10 people, including seven children, were
killed and 14 injured in a blast at a crowded city
park, which officials also blamed on a PKK bomb.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since the
PKK took up arms 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, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community 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
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 