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Kurdish PKK rebels say have bodies of 15
Turkish troops
24.2.2008
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February 24, 2008
Zakho, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',--
Turkish-Kurdish PKK guerrillas said on Saturday they
had recovered the bodies of 15 of the 22 Turkish
soldiers they say they have killed in clashes since
Turkey launched an offensive against them.
The rebels had also begun planning reprisal attacks
on Turkish soil, a spokesman for the Turkey's
separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said.
“There are 22 Turkish soldiers that have been killed
and our soldiers have the bodies of 15,” Ahmed
Danees, head of foreign relations for the PKK,www.ekurd.net
told Reuters by
telephone, adding they would soon release the names
of those killed.
Turkey’s military General Staff said in a statement
on its Web site that only seven Turkish troops had
been killed since the launch of the
cross-border
offensive into the largely autonomous Kurdistan
region in northern Iraq on Thursday.
“The Turkish army is using all its weapons including
fighter jets, helicopters and artillery,”www.ekurd.net
Danees said, adding that
clashes continued.
“We are using guerrilla warfare. We are laying mines
and planning ambushes on the Turkish side of the
border.”
He declined to give the number of PKK casualties.
The statement from Turkey’s military said its forces
had so far killed 79 PKK rebels.
Verifying information about casualties is difficult
because the fighting is taking place in a
mountainous region that is difficult to access.
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, 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.
Reuters
**
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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