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One dead in protests in Turkey on
anniversary of Kurdish rebel's arrest
16.2.2008
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February 16, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- One person was killed and scores detained
in southeast Turkey Friday as police broke up
demonstrations by Kurds marking the ninth
anniversary of Kurdish PKK rebel leader Abdullah
Ocalan's capture, officials and witnesses said.
A youth aged 15 died after being wounded in the head
in unclear circumstances in the town of Cizre, in
Mardin province close to the Syrian border.
Tensions ran high in Hakkari, near the Iraqi border,
where the security forces stopped about 200 people
from holding a march in support of Ocalan, who was
captured in Kenya on February 15, 1999.
The demonstrators hurled stones at the police as the
security forces responded with tear gas and fired
warning shots in the air to disperse the crowd. Many
shops had their windows broken. |
Protesters hold portraits of Abdullah Ocalan, the
jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK), in the southeastern Kurdish city of
Diyarbakir, the capital of Turkeu-Kurdistan |
Similar unrest broke out in Batman, to the east,
where many shopkeepers joined the protests by
keeping their businesses closed, a traditional
expression of support for Ocalan and his separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the mainly Kurdish
southeast (Turkey-Kurdistan).
In Diyarbakir, the largest city of the region, riot
police broke up several smaller demonstrations,
while the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the
country's main Kurdish political movement, hung a
black flag on its building.
Turkish undercover agents, aided by US colleagues,
captured Ocalan in Nairobi after the rebel chieftain
left the Greek embassy there, where he had been
offered refuge for several days while on the run.
He was flown to Turkey and sentenced to death for
treason in June 1999. His sentence was later
commuted to life in prison as Turkey abolished
capital punishment as part of EU-sought reforms.
Over 39,000 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.www.ekurd.net
A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
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, ranting them full
political freedoms.
The PKK group is listed as a "terrorist" organisation by
Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
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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