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May 5, 2009
BILGE, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, — Forty-five people, mostly women and
children, were killed late Monday in an attack on a
wedding party in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast
believed to be linked to a clan feud, officials and
witnesses said.
"Unfortunately 45 citizens lost their lives... There
are six wounded," Interior Minister Besir Atalay
told reporters in Ankara after the massacre in
Bilge, a small village in the province of Mardin.
Initial assessments, he said, rule out the
possibility of a "terrorist attack" -- a reference
to Turkey's separatist Kurdish PKK rebels active in
the region, adding that prosecutors were
investigating the incident.
Turkish minister says PKK
not behind Turkish wedding attack
Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay said on
Tuesday preliminary evidence indicated that an
attack on a wedding party,www.ekurd.net
which claimed the lives
of at least 45 people, was not the work of
terrorists.
Atalay did not mention the Turkey's separatist
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), active in the
southeast, but suggested that his statement was
ruling out their involvement.
Eight arrested in Kurdish
wedding massacre
Eight armed suspects have been arrested over the
killing of 44 people, including six children and 16
women, at a wedding in southeastern Turkey, Interior
Minister Besir Atalay said Tuesday.
Villagers said the shooting might be linked to a
dispute between families, or even a full-fledged
blood feud.
Witnesses told AFP that four masked men, each coming
from a different direction, hurled hand grenades and
then opened fire at a crowd gathered in the village
square,www.ekurd.net
shortly after an imam,
or a Muslim preacher, performed a religious
ceremony.
The assailants then stormed into several houses,
continuing to shoot, they said.
A local official relayed the account of a survivor,
a 19-year-old woman, who said the attackers herded
women and children into a room in one of the houses
and then sprayed them with bullets.
Most victims were women and children, security
sources said.
The assailants managed to escape in the dark as a
sandstorm further worsened visibility in the area,
several dozen kilometres (miles) from the Syrian
border.
Blood feuds are frequent in Turkey's
Kurdish-populated regions, where mediaeval
traditions persist, illiteracy is high and many see
the gun as a legitimate tool to settle scores and
defend one's honor.
Hostilities are triggered by various reasons such as
land disputes, unpaid debts, abductions or girls
eloping with undesirable grooms.
Army troops sealed off Bilge after the incident and
launched a massive operation to hunt down the
assailants.
Ambulances shuttled between the village and Mardin
city, where the bodies and the wounded were taken.
Television footage showed relatives wailing outside
a hospital, some throwing themselves to the ground
in grief.
The group has targeted local civilians refusing to
collaborate with the insurgency, especially in the
early years of its campaign.
Many men in Bilge were members of the so-called
village guard, a government-armed militia supporting
the Turkish army in the fight against the PKK.
There were 32 households in the village and all
inhabitants belonged to the same clan, Anatolia news
agency reported.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was closely
following the incident, Atalay said, adding that he
would travel to the village Tuesday, together with
the justice minister.
Over 44,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the Turkey's
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
took up arms for self-rule in the mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey (Turkey-Kurdistan). 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, 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.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, AFP
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