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Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish PKK guerrilla positions, launches
ground operation |
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Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish PKK
guerrilla positions, launches ground operation
6.9.2012 |
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The PKK 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: AFP/UKS
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September 6, 2012
DIYARBAKIR, The Kurdish
region of Turkey,— The Turkish military has launched
a major air and ground operation against Kurdish
rebels after a spike of deadly attacks in the
southeast, local sources said on Thursday.
Turkish fighter planes and attack
helicopters pounded suspected Kurdish militant
positions near the southeastern border with Syria
and Iraq late on Wednesday in a major air-and-ground
operation, security sources said.
"Around 2,000 soldiers are involved in the
operation. Cobra helicopters ... are bombing targets
on the Kato mountain," a security source told
Reuters, referring to a location in Turkey's
southeastern Sirnak province.
Around 10 F-16 fighter planes had been sent to
support the operation, the source said.
The military operation is mostly concentrated inside
Turkey but sources said jets occassionally cross
into the Iraqi airspace to bomb rebel hideouts.
One soldier was killed and two others were wounded
in the ongoing operation, they said.
The assault comes days after fighters from the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed 10
members of the security services in simultaneous
attacks on four state and security installations in
the province.
Fighting between the army and the PKK has
intensified in recent months, a development which
some Turkish officials and analysts have linked to
the chaos in neighboring Syria.
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. More than 40,000 people have since been
killed.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous 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.
The PKK wants constitutional recognition for the Kurds, regional
self-governance and Kurdish-language education in schools.
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 ©, respective
author or news agency,
Reuters | AFP | ekurd.net | Agencies
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