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Kurdish suspect risks life in prison over
deadly bombing in Turkey
2.5.2008
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May 2, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, — A Kurdish militant appeared in court
Friday to answer charges over a car bomb attack that
killed seven people in Turkey's main Kurdish city
earlier this year, but he denied that he planted or
detonated the explosives.
The prosecution is seeking a life sentence with no
chance of parole for 23-year-old Erdal Polat on
seven counts of premeditated murder for each of the
victims killed in the January 3 bombing in
Diyarbakir.
The indictment describes Polat as a member of the
Turkey's separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
who was ordered by his superiors to carry out
attacks in retaliation for Turkish strikes on rebel
camps in neighbouring Iraq since mid-December.
It says Polat parked the bomb-laden car on a street
in the centre of Diyarbakir and set it off as an
army bus was passing by with several dozen soldiers
on board on their way to a military facility.
In Friday's opening hearing,www.ekurd.net
Polat acknowledged that
he was a PKK member, but said he had only bought the
car used in the attack and handed it over to two
other Kurdish rebels.
"I do not know what
happened after that. I never went to the crime
site," he told the court.
Polat risks two other counts of life imprisonment
for separatism and a hand grenade attack against a
police station in Diyarbakir in December.
Eleven other suspects, most of them Polat's
relatives, face up to 15 years in jail for
"deliberately and willingly aiding the terrorist
organization."
The January 3 attack killed seven civilians -- six
of them teenagers attending classes at a nearby
private school -- and left 68 people injured, about
half of them military officers.
In February, thousands of Turkish troops, backed by tanks,
attack helicopters and warplanes,
crossed into Kurdistan region in northern
Iraq on February 21 in an operation which Ankara said was aimed at Turkey's Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas and their bases, where Ankara estimates more than
2,000 militants take refuge. Iraqi Kurdistan
politician says, Turkey is using Turkey's Kurdish
separatist PKK rebel group as an excuse to invade
Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent the establishment
of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish autonomous region
in 'northern Iraq', Turkey fears this could fan
separatism among its own large Kurdish population in
southeast Turkey.
The rebels have been threatening retaliation as the
Turkish army, aided by US intelligence, has carried
out several air strikes and a week-long incursion
into northern Iraq to hit PKK camps since December
16.
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 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.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union,www.ekurd.net
but Kurdish politicians
say the measures fall short of their expectations.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, 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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