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Kurdish PKK leader's birthday marked by
riots
4.4.2008
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April
4, 2008
ANKARA, Turkey, — Hundreds of Kurdish
demonstrators threw stones and firebombs at Turkish
police and soldiers who prevented around 2,000
people from traveling to the village of imprisoned
Turkey's Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan to mark
his 59th birthday on Friday, television footage
showed.
Hundreds of police and soldiers, carrying riot
shields, took up positions on hilltops near the town
of Halfeti,www.ekurd.net
close to Ocalan's
village of Omerli, in southeastern Sanliurfa
province.
Some rocks landed on armored police and military
vehicles but firebombs were seen falling short.
Police and military authorities urged calm through
loudspeakers and police used water cannons and fired
tear-gas canisters to disperse the crowds, Dogan
footage showed.
Ocalan is serving a life sentence on a prison island
off Istanbul for leading a separatist war for
autonomy in Turkey's southeast. |
A large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise
with the Kurdish PKK rebels and its leader Ocalan |
A European Union court on Thursday
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on
the European Union's terror list.
The EU court said the autonomy-seeking PKK, or
Kurdistan Workers Party, and its political wing,
known as KONGRA-GEL, were not in positions "to
understand, clearly and unequivocally, the
reasoning" that led EU governments to add them to
the terror list.
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 continues to be on the blacklist list in EU
despite court ruling. The PKK is considered a
'terrorist' organization by Ankara, U.S.
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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