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Kurds released after surrender to Turkish
authorities
20.10.2009
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October
20, 2009
SILOPI, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, — Turkey on Tuesday freed a group of Kurdish
rebels who had surrendered to the army after
returning from Iraqi Kurdistan region, a move which
could help efforts to end a 25-year old separatist
conflict.
The militants from the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) rebel group had given themselves up on
Monday to support Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's
reform process,www.ekurd.netwhich
includes plans to grant more political and cultural
rights to minority Kurds.
After being
questioned by
prosecutors, all 34 PKK members, sympathisers and
refugees who
crossed the
border gate near Silopi in mainly Kurdish southeast
Turkey were freed without charges to the cheers of
several thousand jubilant supporters.
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Kurdish PKK guerrillas (Freedom fighters) |
Interior Minister Besir
Atalay said he
expected more PKK
rebels to return to Turkey.
Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party has launched an
initiative that is expected to give greater freedoms
to over 20 million-strong Kurdish minority in
Turkey's southeast. It has said PKK militants who
surrender and are not found to be involved in
attacks will be treated with leniency.
The reforms are important to advancing Turkey's
European Union membership application, responding to
demands that Ankara meet the bloc's human rights
criteria.
The PKK had announced rebels would return to Turkey
on the wishes of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan
to promote peace. The PKK, based in Kurdistan in
north Iraq.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms
for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of
Turkey (Turkey-Kurdistan) which has claimed around
45,000 lives of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas. A large Turkey's Kurdish
community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK
rebels. Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish
population as a distinct minority.
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,www.ekurd.net
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, but Kurdish politicians
say the measures fall short of their expectations.
Ankara is currently working on a package of fresh
reforms to expand the freedoms of the Kurdish
community, but has rejected calls to halt military
action against the PKK.
It has since dropped its independence demand.
Prospects of the current process leading to PKK
disarmament are unclear with Ankara resisting
Kurdish political calls for a rebel amnesty.
MORE EXPECTED TO RETURN
Atalay said the return of the Kurdish group was part
of the wider reform plan and said more would follow.
"We expect the initial group which is coming to
reach 100-150 people. We are advancing towards a
solution with a good plan," he told reporters,
according to broadcaster CNN Turk.
About 3,000 people spent the night in tents near the
Iraqi border to show support for the group of
refugees and militants.
Four lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP) and several lawyers accompanied
the group during questioning, witnesses said.
DTP Chairman Ahmet Turk has said the move "shows
that the PKK is insisting on peace not war".
The DTP, Turkey's only Kurdish party in parliament,
has long been suspected of links to the PKK, branded
a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United
States and the EU. The DTP denies this, but risks a
legal ban in a case before the Constitutional Court.
Copyright,
respective author or news agency, Reuters | Agencies
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