|
PKK claims responsibility for Turkey
suicide car bomb attack
27.5.2012
By Ekurd.net staff writers |
|
|
|
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
[Hêzên Parastina Gel - HPG]
demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas,
the party also demanded an end to
ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms. .
Photo: HPG •
See Related Links
May 27, 2012
ANKARA, — The guerrillas from the
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) [The People Defense
Forces Hêzên Parastina Gel - HPG] claimed
responsibility on Saturday for a suicide car bomb
attack in central Turkey that killed
one Turkish policeman, and media reports said the
bombers had entered Turkey from Syria.
One Turkish police officer and three more people
(believed to be Kurdish guerrillas) lost their life
in the attack. A bomb detonated in the car the
guerrillas were driving towards a police station,
ANF news agency reported.
Four suspects have been detained in connection with
the attack, Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin told
reporters.
Two militants set off a bomb inside their car near a
police station at Pinarbasi in Turkey's central
Kayseri province on Friday, killing themselves and
one policeman and wounding 18 others.
A statement on a PKK website said Pinarbasi was the
intended target and the bombing was a response to
Turkish military attacks, rejecting Turkish media
reports that the actual target was in the capital
Ankara.
"We have seized four people. Their foreign links
have been revealed," Sahin said.
He did not elaborate but broadcaster NTV reported
security sources as saying the bombers entered
Turkey from neighboring Syria which is in the grip
of a the 14-month-old revolt against President
Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian border region is not generally an area of
major PKK activity but this month, three Turkish
soldiers were killed in clashes with the rebels near
the border, a region which has seen thousands of
refugees fleeing from the Syrian conflict.
The PKK threatened in March to step up attacks in
Turkey if its forces entered Syria after Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan, one of Assad's most vocal
critics,www.ekurd.net
mooted the possibility of establishing buffer zones
within Syria to protect civilians.
The PKK threat signaled a possible renewed alliance
with Damascus, which backed the rebels in the 1980s
and 1990s.
Sahin said on Friday police followed the car from
Goksun district in Kahramanmaras to Pinarbasi, about
100 km (60 miles), after it passed a checkpoint in
the road without stopping.
Police opened fire as it passed the Pinarbasi police
station and the bomb was detonated. Pinarbasi is
east of Kayseri city, some 325 km (200 miles)
southeast of the capital Ankara.
The PKK has several times proposed peaceful solutions regarding Kurdish problem,
Turkey has always refused saying that it will not negotiate with “terrorists”.
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 and 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: Reuters | firatnews.com | ekurd.net |
Agencies
Copyright
© 2012 ekurd.net
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the
content of news information on this page
|
®
