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Turkish army kills 11 Kurdish PKK rebels
in southeastern Turkey
13.3.2008
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March 13, 2008
ANKARA, Turkey, -- Turkish troops killed 11
Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels during clashes in
Kurdish populated southeastern Turkey near the
border with Iraqi Kurdistan region, a private news
agency reported Wednesday.
The fighting comes two weeks after Turkey's
eight-day
incursion into
Kurdistan 'northern Iraq' to flush out the rebels of
the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK, who have
been battling the Turkish government since 1984.
The clashes took place in Kurdish Sirnak province,
the private Dogan news agency said citing unnamed
military sources. A government-paid village guard
who was assisting the Turkish troops was wounded in
the fighting, the report said.
There was no confirmation from the military and
officials from the governor's office in Sirnak were
not immediately available for comment.
Also Wednesday, the Turkish prime minister announced
plans to travel this weekend to the country's poor
southeast in an apparent effort to address the
concerns of the Kurds.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said a solution to the
conflict with the Kurds cannot rely only on security
measures, and that economic support in the southeast
region where many of them live and nationwide
cultural rights must be part of any solution to the
conflict.
But the military objects to most concessions to the
Kurdish PKK rebels, whose demands for autonomy and
greater freedom to use the Kurdish language are
backed by many of their ethnic brethren,www.ekurd.net
even if increasing
numbers of Kurds have grown disillusioned with
violence as a means of achieving their goals.
Some Turkish nationalists fear that increasing
cultural rights could lead to the breakup of the
country along ethnic lines. They worry that Turkish
Kurds could be encouraged by the U.S.-supported
Kurdish region in northern Iraq, which has its own
government and militia.
Many Kurds have pinned their hopes on Turkey's push
to join the European Union, which has said Ankara's
treatment of the Kurds will be a key factor in its
decision on whether to accept the country. But that
process could take at least a decade and Kurdish
frustration is growing.
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.
The PKK is considered a 'terrorist' organization by
the Ankara, U.S. and the EU.
Information for this report was provided by
AP | Agencies
** 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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