|
PKK leader says Turkish military operation
in Kurdistan failed
1.3.2008
|
|
|
|
March 1, 2008
SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- The
Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader said
Turkey had failed to achieve its aims with its
military operation against his guerrillas in Iraqi
Kurdistan region, in a telephone interview on
Saturday.
Ankara "wants to control a big part of Kurdistan to
use as a base to attack cities in northern Iraq",www.ekurd.net
PKK leader Murat
Karayilan told AFP from his hideout in the remote
Qandil mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan.
On Friday the Turkish military announced the
end of its incursion
in the mountains of Kurdistan 'northern Iraq',
launched on
February 21 and aimed at flushing out PKK rebels
from the area. |
Murat Karayilan, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
leader |
"That was Turkey's goal,
but it could not fulfill it because of the
resistance by the PKK fighters. Their operation
against our strongholds failed," he said.
Turkey "attacked our forces on three fronts in the
Zap region, but failed to achieve their goals even
though the Turkish army has advanced technology and
jet fighters that flew over the combat zone and
bombed us non-stop".
According to Karayilan,www.ekurd.net
Turkey launched the
military operation with the goal of crippling the
PKK but also to weaken Iraqi Kurdistan and "prevent
the return of Kirkuk to Kurdistan".
The Turkish attacks were "against all Kurds, not
just the PKK," he said.
The contested oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk has a
large Kurdish population, but has never been part of
the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish regional government.
In the 1980s, President Saddam Hussein sought to
change the ethnic composition of the city by moving
Arabs into the area.
The Turkish military said the offensive dealt a
serious blow to the Turkish Kurdish rebel group,
with at least 240 militants killed and dozens of
hideouts, training camps and ammunition depots
destroyed.
Karayilan said the PKK had killed 130 Turkish
soldiers and suffered five only casualties of its
own.
The offensive included ground assaults and air raids
and targeted rebel positions in and around Zap, a
mountainous snow-bound region near the Turkish
border, where a major PKK base and training camp is
located.
The PKK is considered a "terrorist" organization by
the U.S. and the EU.
Since 1984 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.
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
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 