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Germany: Three Kurd-PKK suspects arrested
17.3.2008
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March 17, 2008
BERLIN, -- German police have arrested three
alleged operatives from the Turkey's outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) accused of extorting
money for the group,www.ekurd.net
prosecutors said Monday.
The three Kurds, a Turkish citizens ranging in age
from 26 to 50 years old were picked up last
Wednesday after a court issued arrest warrants,
public prosecutor Horst Hund in the western city of
Koblenz said in a statement.
They are believed to have acted on behalf of the PKK
in Bonn and Koblenz since 2007.
"In that time the accused were responsible for
distributing propaganda and organising and holding
political events," Hund said.
"The accused are in particular strongly suspected of
having directed funds that they collected from
private Kurdish citizens and business people in the
Bonn and Koblenz regions to chapters of the PKK."
Hund said it was in the course of the fundraising
drive that the three tried to extort money from the
Kurdish owner of a snack shop and attacked him when
he refused to pay.
The suspects have been charged with belonging to a
criminal organisation and attempted extortion by
force. They have denied the accusations.
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 U.S. and the EU. It has been banned in Germany
since 1993.
AFP | 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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