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Turkish prime minister says deadly bomb
attack is 'PKK style'
6.1.2008
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January
6, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan Saturday called a deadly
car bomb attack
in the southeastern Anatolia region a "betrayal" of
Kurds by Kurdish PKK rebels blamed for the act.
"This act of betrayal translates not only the
desperation but also the loss of reference points of
the terrorist organisation,"
Erdogan told reporters in the main Kurdish city of
Diyarbakir,www.ekurd.net
referring to the
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
No one has claimed responsibility for Thursday's
attack, which killed five people and wounded 68, but
Turkish officials blame the PKK.
"Those killed in this attack, weren't they fellow
Kurdish citizens? Weren't they people from the
region?" Erdogan asked during a visit to central
Diyarbakir where the blast occurred.
During his visit, Edogan also met with soldiers
wounded in the blast as well as relatives of the
victims.
Four of the dead were high school students attending
classes at a nearby private school. The wounded
included about 30 soldiers.
The PKK, which has waged a bloody 23-year campaign
for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey, had
threatened to retaliate against Turkish air strikes
on its bases in neighbouring Kurdistan 'northern
Iraq' last month.
Investigators believe the bomb was made of about 40
kilogrammes (88 pounds) of explosives of a type the
PKK has frequently used, a police source said
earlier this week on condition of anonymity.
Diyarbakir was the target of a 2006 explosion that
killed 10 people and was also blamed on the PKK.
In Iraq, President Jalal Talabani and Massoud
Barzani, President of Iraq's Kurdistan region,
condemned the bombing, describing it as a brutal act
that targeted Kurds.
"We condemn the terrorist act that occurred in
Diyarbakir," Barzani said during a joint news
conference at the Dokan resort, about 40 kilometers
(25 miles) west of Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan's
cultural capital.
Barzani said he hoped "that all can recognize the
enemies of freedom and peace are trying to commit
more terrorist acts in order not to give a chance to
dialogue" to resolve differences.
Talabani said the attack was "against the Kurdish
population, we regret that and present our
condolences to the martyrs' families; we do believe
that it is a criminal act."
Since 1984 the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey. 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,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, granting them full
political freedoms.
AFP | AP
**
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
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