|
Turkish fighter jets strike Iraqi Kurdistan, kill 25 Kurdish
PKK rebels: army |
|
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the
content of news information on this page |
|
Turkish fighter jets strike Iraqi
Kurdistan, kill 25 Kurdish PKK rebels: army
10.9.2012 |
|
|
|
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: UKS •
See Related Links
September 10, 2012
DIYARBAKIR, The Kurdish region of
Turkey,— Turkish air strikes killed 25 Kurdish
rebels inside Iraq's Kurdistan region in the past
few days as heavy army-rebel fighting inside Turkey
killed at least 461 people this year,
the army said Monday.
“An air operation has been staged against 14 targets
of the separatist terrorist organization in the
north of Iraq between September 5 and 9,” the chief
of staff said in an online statement.
“According to initial data, 25 terrorists have been
rendered ineffective,” a term often cited by the
military for rebel deaths.
The army also added it destroyed dozens of rebel
shelters, several ammunition depots and rebel
anti-aircraft during the cross-border operation.
The statement came after an earlier announcement on
casualty figures throughout the year inside the
country.
According to the army figures, 461 people were
killed this year in almost 1,000 operations in the
country’s southeast, reported the private NTV news
channel.
Some 373 Kurdish rebels were killed in operations
carried out over five months, and 88 Turkish
soldiers in the last nine months, the army was
quoted as saying by the television network.
The army has staged 974 operations over the last six
months to drive out the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK), which often stages ambushes against
Turkish forces in the Kurdish-majority southeast,
according to NTV.
The Turkish army-led operations were concentrated in
four southeastern Kurdish cities of Hakkari, Tunceli,
Siirt and Sirnak in northern Kurdistan, according to
the army statement released by the channel.
The army launched a major offensive against Kurdish
rebels on July 23 that it said early last month
killed as many as 115 rebels.
The latest rebel attack in Sirnak which left 30
people dead prompted the army to carry out another
large-scale operation in the region last week which
local sources said was backed by air power as well
as thousands of ground troops.
The Turkish F-16 jets also occasionally violated
Iraqi Kurdish airspace to bomb rebel hideouts inside
northern Iraq, they added.
In its earlier statement, the military establishment
also rebuffed allegations that it was sending
under-trained conscripts to strike the experienced
rebels,www.ekurd.net
saying 54 among the 88 dead soldiers were
professional troops.
Turkish army operations target rebel hideouts inside
the country as well as across the border with Iraq,
where authorities claim rebels are holed up to
launch strikes inside Turkey.
The PKK attacks traditionally increase in the
summer, when snows melts in the mountainous zone
between Iraq and Turkey, allowing easy passage in
and outside the Turkish southeast.
Some government officials further believe Syria’s
embattled regime is helping the PKK in retaliation
for Turkey’s support for rebels fighting President
Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
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,
AFP | ekurd.net | Agencies
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the
content of news information on this page
|
|
|
®
