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Kurdish PKK rebels kidnap British tourist
in SE Turkey
3.6.2012 |
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The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
[Hęzęn 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: Ekurd.net/Viewphotos.org/HPG
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June 3, 2012
DIYARBAKIR, The Kurdish
region of Turkey, — Kurdish rebels have stopped a
passenger bus and kidnapped a British tourist in the
Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey, local sources
said on Sunday, AFP reported.
The incident took place at 1530 GMT on Saturday on
the Diyarbakir-Bingol highway.
Diyarbakir governor Mustafa Toprak confirmed the
kidnapping, in remarks carried by the Anatolia news
agency.
Rebels "seized some passengers' phones and kidnapped
a foreign national, who is thought to be a British
national," he told Anatolia.
The rebels took a 35-year-old tourist to a rural
area in the northeast of Kurdish city of
Diyarbakir, said the sources.
The abduction followed a recent increase in activity
by the rebel group, which last month kidnapped 10
villagers from Bayirli village in the southeast. The
motive was unknown.
The PKK has several times proposed peaceful solutions regarding Kurdish problem,www.ekurd.net
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.
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