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Amnesty International calls on the Turkey
to investigate civilian Kurds' killing
1.1.2012 |
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Locals gather in front of the bodies of Kurds who
were killed in a Turkish warplane attack in the
Ortasu village of Uludere, in the Sirnak province,
Turkey Kurdistan on December 29, 2011. Turkish
warplanes killed 23 Kurdish villagers.
Photo: Getty
January 1, 2012
LONDON, — Turkey must investigate
civilian killings.
Amnesty International calls on the Turkish
authorities to investigate immediately the death of
at least 35 civilians in a military airstrike near
the Iraqi border in south-eastern Turkey on the
night of 28 December 2011. No military targets were
reported to have been hit in the attack.
“The circumstances of the military operation that
caused the death of so many civilians, some of whom
were children, must be urgently investigated in a
full, independent and transparent manner,” said
Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme
Director.
“The government statements of regret are welcome but
are woefully insufficient in the face of what
appears to have been a complete failure to
distinguish between a military target and
civilians.”
Early reports indicated that drones operating in the
area had alerted the Turkish airforce to the
movement of a large group of people across the Iraqi
Kurdistan border,www.ekurd.net
believed to have been members of the Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK).
As a result, some 35 Kurdish civilians were
killed near the
Uludere village in the city of Sirnak. At least 18
of those killed were children, the youngest was said
to have been 12 years old. Twenty-nine of them are
believed to belong to the same family.
“The Turkish authorities must take measures to
prevent further such attacks and to provide
compensation for the families of those killed,” said
Nicola Duckworth.
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 ass '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.
Copyright © 2012, respective author or news agency,
amnesty.org | ekurd.net | Agencies
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