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Too Bad Kurdistan Isn't Tibet, Too Bad
Turkey Isn't China
30.3.2008 |
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March
30, 2008
It isn't Tibet and China and no one is paying
attention, but maybe the media should be looking at
the response of Turkish police to unrest in Kurdish
regions of the country.
Tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul's Kazliçeşme
square yesterday after the call by the Democratic
Society Party (DTP) along with other organizations
to mark the coming of the spring festival, Newroz.
Turkish Daily News says the celebrations in Istanbul
started under strict security measures. Along with
police forces,www.ekurd.net
military forces were on
guard beside Kazliçeşme square as well. People were
allowed onto the square after a police search.
Although police did not allow the presence of
posters of Abdullah Ocalan (one of the founders and
chairperson of Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK)), and
some banners in Kurdish, Öcalan posters found their
way to the square. People were also carrying banners
saying, “We are hungry, not for spaghetti, but for
peace and fraternity.”
France 24 is reporting clashes broke out in Van,
located in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, when
thousands of protesters tried to march through the
streets to denounce the death of a 35-year-old man
from a bullet wound he sustained during a protest at
the weekend. Police used batons on Monday to beat
back the demonstrators --members of Turkey's main
Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party -- in
Wan on the ground that their march was illegal.
Two Kurdish demonstrators died in southeastern
Turkey as clashes between the police and Kurdish
continued today.
On Sunday in the morning Kurds gathered to celebrate
in Gewer (Yüksekova). During celebrations the
security forces attacked civilians including women
and children. During the conflict one of the
demonstrators named Ikbal Yasar, 20, was shot dead
in his heart by the police. According to
eyewitnesses who spoke to Roj TV, “when Ikram was
injured, he could be taken to the hospital but they
were hindered by the police. So he died.” Military
forces also intervened as clashes spread throughout
the town and police forces were unable to restore
order.
The celebrations quickly turned into demonstrations
in support of Kurdish separatists. Protests
continued there today.
In Amed, hundred thousands of people gathered and
called for an “Autonomous Democratic Kurdistan’,
amnesty for Abdullah Ocalan, and release of other
political prisoners, as well as a democratic
political solution for Kurdish issue. |
Turkish riot policemen beat a Kurdish protester
during a clash in Van, on March 24. Turkey's rebel
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has threatened to
retaliate against Ankara after the violence during
the Kurdish New Year celebration of Newroz in
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
Turkish Kurds, some of them holding flags of the
outlawed PKK, and a poster of its jailed leader,
Ocalan, chant slogans during the Newroz celebrations
in the southeastern Kurdish city of Diyarbakir,
March 21, 2008 |
Scores of Kurds have been rounded up and detained by
Turkish police as well.
US Vice President Dick Cheney held talks with
Turkish leaders in Ankara on Monday. There are no
reports of Cheney denouncing the Turkish crack down
on Kurds.
The following is from EuroNews.
Fresh violence as Turkish police clash with Kurdish
protesters
There has been fresh violence on the streets of
southeastern Turkey, where security forces have once
again clashed with stone-throwing Kurdish
protesters. Days of disturbances have centred on the
city of Van and the town of Yuksekova. Unrest at
pro-Kurdish rallies at the weekend in both locations
left two people dead.
Today, injuries and arrests were reported as trouble
continued to flare. Feelings are running high as
Turkey's Kurdish population celebrates the Newroz
spring festival. It is often a flashpoint for
confrontation between the authorities and Kurds,
campaigning for greater rights and autonomy.
In their hunt for those who had taken part in the
protests, police even piled into a hospital.
Turkey recently carried out a cross-border ground
offensive, targeting armed Kurdish rebels Ankara
says have been using northern Iraq as a springboard
for attacks on Turkish soil.
The raid has further heightened tension between
security forces and Kurds in southeastern Turkey.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
The Oread Daily, oreaddaily blogspot.com
The Oread Daily provides daily progressive, left,
anti-racist, anarchist, commie, activist,
environmental, Marxist, revolutionary, etc. news and
information from around the US and around the world.
** 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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