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Turkey shells Iraqi Kurdistan: Kurdish PKK
rebels
18.10.2011 |
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October 18, 2011
ERBIL-Hewlęr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Turkey was shelling
northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on
Tuesday, a Kurdish rebel spokesman said, in the
first report of Turkish bombardment in the area in
more than two weeks.
The shelling began Monday night "against Khowakirk
and Zab in northeast Dohuk" province, said Dozdar
Hammo, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK), which operates out of bases in Kurdistan.
It was still ongoing early Tuesday afternoon, he
said, adding that there were no reports of
casualties.
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The shelling was the first report of Turkish
bombardment in Kurdistan since September 29, when
the PKK said Turkish warplanes carried out strikes
in the region.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, himself a
Kurd, said during a visit to Ankara this month that
the presence of Kurdish rebels in the north was
"unacceptable," but stopped short of offering a
solution.
Turkey's parliament overwhelmingly voted on October
5 to extend the government's mandate to order
military strikes against Kurdish rebels in
neighbouring Iraq for one more year.
Since 2007, Turkey has renewed the motion giving a
green light for the Turkish military to conduct
cross-border raids to hit PKK hideouts in northern
Iraq. The current authorisation was to expire on
October 17.
Since August 17, Turkish jets repeatedly carried out
air strikes against the Kurdish PKK separatist
group's bases in
Iraqi Kurdistan region,
under justification of chasing elements of the
anti-Ankara PKK, forcing large numbers
of Kurdish citizens of those areas to desert their home
villages, including
an air raid that
killed 7
Kurdish civilians in a village north
of Kurdistan’s Sulaimaniyah city on August 21st.
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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