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Turkish police detain 150 people in
Kurdish KCK probe
4.10.2011
By staff writers |
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October 4, 2011
ISTANBUL, — Turkish police have detained
over 140 people with suspected links to Kurdish
rebels in three main cities, media reports said.
Police early Tuesday morning arrested 90 people in
Istanbul after raiding several addresses around the
city, Anatolia news agency reported.
The suspects are accused of having links to the
urban wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Police also detained 31 people in Diyarbakir, the
regional capital of the |
Anti-KCK operations in Hakkari, the Kurdish region
in SE turkey. |
mainly Kurdish southeast
[Turkish Kurdistan], and 20 people in city of
Gaziantep in the same region on the same charges,
NTV news channel reported.
The number of detainees might increase in Diyarbakir
as the police operation was ongoing, NTV said.
Hundreds of people, including elected mayors, are
already on trial on charges of ties to the Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) militant group, as part of a
two-year old case which has fuelled tensions in the
Kurdish southeast Turkey.
The number of detainees might increase in Diyarbakir
as the police operation was ongoing, NTV said.
Currently, more than 2,500 Kurds, including members
and five parliamentarians of the pro-Kurdish Peace
and Democracy Party, are in jail with the same
accusation.
The investigation is focused on an organisation
called the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK),
which the PKK established in 2005 with the aim of
creating its own Kurdish political system,www.ekurd.netaccording
to a 2009 indictment.
Some 152 high profile Kurdish politicians and
activists are being tried in Diyarbakir where a
large courtroom has been specially built. Similar
trials are being held in other cities across Turkey.
On October 18, 2010 a Turkish court began the trial
of 152 high profile Kurdish politicians and rights
defenders, accused of being the urban wing of the
outlawed separatist Kurdish (Kurdistan Workers'
Party) PKK rebels, in a case seen as a democracy
test for Ankara.
The European Union, which Turkey is aiming to join,
is closely watching the cases and their human rights
implications.
Deputies from the BDP party swore their
parliamentary oaths at the start of the legislative
term at the weekend, ending a boycott triggered by
court rulings barring some of its elected
candidates, jailed in the KCK cases, from taking
their seats.
The renewed violence is another setback for a
government initiative in recent years to boost the
rights of minority Kurds who account for up to 15
million of Turkey’s 74 million people.
Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been
fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the
constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a
Kurdish state in the south east of the country, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000
lives.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous
Kurdish region
and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who
constitute the greatest minority in Turkey,
numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees,
lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the
way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within
Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader
Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against
the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish
constitution.
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.
The PKK is considered as '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.
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