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PKK says its rebels may be behind deadly
Turkey blast
7.1.2008
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January
7, 2008
ANKARA, -- The Turkey's outlawed separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK said Monday a group of
its militants "acting on their own" could be behind
a deadly
car bomb blast
in Turkey last week, a news agency close to the
rebels reported.
"There is a possibility that the January 3 attack...
could have been carried out by a unit from our
forces, acting on its own initiative," said a PKK
statement, carried by the Firat news agency.
Turkish officials have blamed the PKK for the
bombing in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's
mainly Kurdish southeast, in which five people were
killed and about 70 wounded.
The explosives-laden car was set off by remote
control Thursday afternoon near a military facility
in downtown Diyarbakir as an army vehicle carrying
some 50 soldiers was passing by.
Four of the dead were high school students attending
classes at a nearby private school. The wounded
included about 30 soldiers.
Turkish chief of general staff Yasar Buyukanit said
last week that the blast was a sign of "panic" in
PKK ranks following Turkish air raids on the group's
bases in the mountains of neighbouring Kurdistan
region in 'northern Iraq',www.ekurd.net
which the rebels use as
a springboard for cross-border attacks inside
Turkey.
The military has confirmed three air strikes
conducted with US intelligence assistance against
the PKK in Iraq since December 16 in which it said
at least 150 militants were killed and more than 200
PKK positions destroyed.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when 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.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara, US
and EU.
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
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