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Three more charged in Turkey over deadly
car bomb attack
21.1.2008
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January 21, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, --- A Turkish court Monday charged three
more suspects in connection with a deadly
car bomb attack
here earlier this month, judicial officials said.
The three men detained earlier, relatives of the
suspected bomber in the January 3 attack, were
charged with aiding the assailant, who has been
jailed pending trial along with six others, the
sources said.
Police say the main suspect, allegedly a Kurdish
militant, confessed to detonating the remote-control
bomb on orders from the Turkey's separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in retaliation for
Turkish air strikes on PKK camps in neighbouring
Iraqi Kurdistan since mid-December.
The trial will begin after prosecutors draw up an
indictment detailing the charges against the
suspects.
The attack killed seven people,www.ekurd.net
six of them teenagers
attending classes at a nearby private school in
central Diyarbakir, and left 66 injured, about half
of them military officers.
The intended target was apparently an army bus
passing by with several dozen soldiers on board
close to a military facility in this city, the
biggest in Turkey's mainly Kurdish populated
southeast.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara, US
and EU,
has apologised
for the attack and put the blame on Kurdish
militants acting without the approval of the
leadership.
The Turkish army has confirmed four air raids
conducted with US intelligence assistance against
PKK camps in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' since
December 16 in which it said at least 150 rebels
were killed and more than 260 PKK positions
destroyed and the rebels had threatened to
retaliate.
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.
Over 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when 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, 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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