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Landmine explosion kills Turkish soldier:
army
22.4.2008
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April
22, 2008
ANKARA, -- A landmine explosion blamed on
Turkey's separatist Kurdish PKK rebels killed a
Turkish soldier and left two others wounded in
southeast Turkey, the Turkish military said Tuesday.
The incident occurred Monday in a mountainous area
near the town of Cukurca,www.ekurd.net
on the Iraqi Kurdistan
border, where soldiers were conducting a security
operation against the separatist Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK), the statement said.
The statement did not say how badly hurt the wounded
soldiers were.
Another Turkish soldier was wounded Tuesday in a
land mine explosion in Sirnak province, near Hakkari,
private Dogan news agency said. The military did not
immediately confirm that report.
The PKK frequently uses remote-control landmines to
attack the security forces.
The group operates mostly in the heavily Kurdish southeast Turkey
(Turkey Kurdistan) but is
also active in other parts of the country.
The group, listed as a terrorist organisation by
Ankara and much of the international community, has
waged an armed campaign for self-rule in the
Kurdish-majority southeast since 1984.
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
Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision to place the Kurdish
rebel group PKK and its political wing on the
European Union's terror list.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, AFP, 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)
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