|
Turkey's Erdogan vows further crackdown on
Kurdish KCK group
8.11.2011
By ekurd.net staff writers |
|
|
|
November 8, 2011
ANKARA,— Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep
Tayyib Erdogan said on Monday that his government
will not ease its crackdown on a Kurd political
movement and warned the media that criticising his
actions against the KCK amounted to supporting
terrorism.
“Regarding the latest operations targeting the KCK,
no one should expect them to end,” Recep Tayyip
Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news
agency in his home city of Rize.
Turkey claims that the KCK is the urban wing of the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an outlawed PKK
rebel group that has been labelled a "terrorist"
organisation by Ankara and several foreign
governments. |
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Photo: AFP |
Ankara further alleges that the KCK wants to replace
Turkish government institutions in the southeastern
Anatolia region, which is majority Kurd, with its
own political structures.
“There is one state in Turkey: the state of Turkey.
There cannot be a second,” Erdogan said.
“Whether in the media or elsewhere, you must be
careful what you say about the KCK. This amounts to
supporting terrorism,” the prime minister added.
A Turkish court on Nov.1 pressed separatism charges
against 23 suspects, in so-called KCK-Trial [Union of Communities in
Kurdistan], including a university professor
Prof. Busra Ersanli,
a political scientist,
and Ragip Zarakolu, a well-known human rights
activist and director of Belge Publishing House, on suspicion of membership in a
separatist Kurdish PKK rebel group, state-run
television reported.
Reporters Without Borders strongly
condemns columnist and publisher Ragip
Zarakolu’s detention since
the evening of 28 October, when he and around 40
other people were arrested in a round-up of
pro-Kurdish activists in Istanbul.
The International Publishers Association (IPA)
condemns the arrest of Zarakolu and
called for the immediate release of Zarakolu,
"This man does not belong to prison, he deserves a
Nobel Prize.", Bjorn Smith-Simonsen, Chair of IPA's
Freedom to Publish Committee (FTPC), said
The KCK is accused of being the urban wing of the
outlawed PKK, which is
itself listed as a "terrorist" organization by Turkey
and much of the international community.
KCK-trial, on October 18, 2010 a Turkish
court began the trial
of 152 high profile Kurdish politicians and rights defenders,www.ekurd.net
accused of being the urban wing of the outlawed
separatist Kurdish PKK rebels.
Over
7748 people were taken into
custody and 3895 persons were
arrested in the scope of KCK operations during the past six months
[Till October 2011], the
pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party announced.
Dozens of BDP executives and employees are still in
prison.
Intellectuals in Turkey have started a campaign they
labelled "We
are all KCK". KCK
(Kurdish Communities Union) is alleged by the
prosecutors to be the "urban wing" of the PKK. ANF news agency
reported on Nov.3.
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.
Sources:
AFP | ekurd.net | Agencies
Copyright © 2011 ekurd.net
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the
content of news information on this page
|
®
