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Bomb blast kills one in the Kurdish region in SE
Turkey, PKK rebels deny involvement
20.1.2012 |
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At least fifteen people have been injured in an
explosion in the Kurdish city of Hakkari in northern
Kurdistan on Thursday, January 19, 2012. Photo ANF
We have nothing to do with Hakkari explosion,
PKK says
January
20, 2012
HAKKARI, The Kurdish
region of Turkey, — Turkish officials said Friday
that a remote-control bomb explosion has killed
one person and injured 27 others in southeast
Turkey [Turkey Kurdistan], Anatolia news agency
reported, citing authorities.
A hand-made bomb, comprising of five kilogrammes
of TNT explosives, was detonated in the centre
of the city of Hakkari on Thursday afternoon, as
a police car was passing by, police told
state-run Anatolia.
The bomb was placed in the trunk of a car, they
said.
The provincial governor of Hakkari, Muammer
Turker, earlier said 13 people, including three
police officers, were injured in a blast.
One of the injured, Zeki Yesil, a university
student, died at hospital after the blast,
Anatolia said. The injured included three police
officers, according to the governor.
Kurdish rebels on Friday denied any link with
the bombing.
"Our forces have no connection to the bomb
attack that killed one Kurdish youngster in
Hakkari city centre ... Considering current
winter conditions, it can be seen that it is not
possible for our guerrillas to take action in
that region," the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
said in a statement, carried by pro-Kurdish news
agency Firat.
Governor Turker earlier on Friday pointed a
finger at PKK for the bombing.
Hakkari province is in southeast Turkey and
close to the Iraqi semi-autonomous Kurdistan
border,www.ekurd.net
where the majority of the population is Kurdish.
Bomb blasts are frequent in Kurdish Anatolia.
Since it was established in 1984, the Kurdistan
Workers' Party 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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author or news agency,
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