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Kurdish TAK group threaten attacks on
Turkey tourist sites
21.2.2008
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February 21, 2008
ANKARA, -- A radical Kurdish TAK group
threatened fresh attacks in Turkey, including
against tourist targets, following Turkish air raids
on Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebel positions in Iraqi
Kurdistan region, in a statement on its web site
Wednesday.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a shadowy group
that has claimed responsibility for deadly bomb
attacks in the past, threatened "days of apocalypse
for Turkey... with (our) activists who have taken a
vow of revenge." |
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The targets will include tourist centres, economic
facilities, the security forces and Kurdish
"collaborators", it said.
Turkish warplanes have conducted five bombing raids
since mid-December on camps of the separatist
Turkish-Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in
neighbouring Kurdistan region in 'northern Iraq'.
Turkish officials say TAK is a front for PKK attacks
on civilian targets, while the PKK maintains that it
is a splinter group over which it has no control.
TAK has claimed responsibility for several bomb
attacks in Turkey's urban centres and tourist areas,
the worst of which killed five people including two
foreign tourists in the Aegean resort of Kusadasi in
2005.
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. 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,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by
the U.S. and the 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 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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