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Two more suspects detained after Turkey
car bomb attack
9.1.2008
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January
9, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Turkey has detained two more people with
suspected links to Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels after
a deadly
car bomb attack,
bringing to nine the number of suspects in custody,
judicial officials said Wednesday.
A suspect was apprehended late Tuesday in Diyarbakir,
the country's main Kurdish city, where an
explosives-laden car went off Thursday, killing six
people and wounding 67 others, the sources said.
He is believed to have helped the alleged
perpetrator of the attack, a suspected militant of
the Turkey's separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
who was detained in Diyarbakir Monday, Anatolia news
agency reported.
The second suspect was detained in a village near
Van, about 380 kilometres (235 miles) northeast of
Diyarbakir, an aide to the local prosecutor said.
The suspect was believed to be a PKK member,
according to Anatolia.
About 55 kilogrammes (121 pounds) of explosives were
seized in a vehicle abandoned outside Van a day
after the Diyarbakir blast and the local police
received a tip-off that bomb attacks were planned
there as well.
The car bomb in Diyarbakir was detonated by remote
control as an army vehicle with some 50 soldiers on
board was passing by.
Five of the six victims were teenagers attending
classes at a nearby private school training students
for university exams.
About 30 of the injured were soldiers.
Turkish officials were quick to blame the bombing on
the PKK. Since 1984 PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey.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,
apologised for
the attack Tuesday and put the blame on Kurdish
militants acting on their own.
The alleged bomber was trained in explosives in PKK
camps in neighbouring northern Iraq, where the
rebels take refuge, media reports said.
The six other suspects held in the probe hail from
the same family and are related to the suspected
assailant, judicial officials said.
Army chief Yasar Buyukanit has described the
Diyarbakir blast as a sign of "panic" in PKK ranks
following Turkish air strikes in December on rebel
bases in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', against
which the PKK had threatened to retaliate.
The military has confirmed three air raids conducted
with US intelligence assistance against the PKK in
Iraq since December 16 in which it said at least 150
rebels were killed and more than 200 PKK positions
destroyed.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since the
PKK, listed as a "terrorist" group by Ankara, US and EU,
took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast
in 1984.
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
**
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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