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Turkey carries out new anti-PKK raid in
Iraqi Kurdistan
10.10.2008
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October 10, 2008
ANKARA, — Turkish jets carried out a fresh
bombing raid overnight from Thursday to Friday on
Iraqi Kurdistan territory against separatist Kurdish
PKK rebels who were trying to cross the border, the
army said on Friday.
"A large group of terrorists was neutralised" during
the operation on Thursday night which also involved
the use of artillery,www.ekurd.net
army general Metin Gurak
told a press conference.
The raid came after Turkey's Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan chaired a meeting of security chiefs
to discuss fresh measures against Turkey's Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) rebels after they carried out
two deadly attacks in a week.
Gurak said the rebels were "preparing to commit
attacks in Turkey," but did not give out any toll
for PKK losses from the raid.
The action follows emergency talks involving
Turkey's civilian and military leadership in the
wake of two attacks on security forces claimed 22
lives in a week. |
Turkish warplanes bombed the bases of the Turkey's
separatist Kurdish PKK rebels in Iraqi Kurdistan
region |
Erdogan's government is under pressure for tougher
action against the PKK after 17 soldiers were killed
last Friday when militants crossing from camps in
neighbouring Iraq assaulted a border outpost,www.ekurd.net
backed by heavy weapons fire from the other side of
the frontier.
It was followed Wednesday by an attack on a police
bus in Diyarbakir, the main city of the
Kurdish-majority southeast, which claimed five
lives.
The bus came under machine-gun fire just as
parliament in Ankara extended by one year the
government's mandate to order cross-border military
operations in northern Iraq against the PKK, which
has long enjoyed safe haven in the region.
According to army figures, 25 rebels had died in the
military reprisals prior to the fresh raid.
Over 39,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish
PKK rebels.
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.
The PKK is considered a '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.
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.
Turkey has never, and still does not, recognize the
Kurdistan region government (KRG) and refuses to
meet with its representatives in any official
capacity. That reflects Ankara's fear that any
international respect shown to the autonomous Iraqi
Kurdistan region would only embolden Turkey's own
large Kurdish minority to seek similar home-rule
status.
Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional
government that holds sway in northern Iraq,
regretted Ankara's refusal to hold direct talks on
the crisis over the Turkey's separatist Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.
In earlier statement by Iraqi Kurdistan forces chief
Brig. Gen. Jabbar Yawar, an undersecretary for the
ministry governing Kurdistan protection forces known
as Peshmerga, said "Turkey wants imaginary and
impossible demands. They want us to kill all PKK for
them while they themselves cannot do that," he said.
Iraqi Kurds says previously we saw the Turkish army
invading the region under the pretext of chasing the
PKK and this army did nothing.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, AFP | Agencies
** Kurds are not recognized as an official minority
in Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in Big
Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to 25 million ethnic Kurds, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise
with the Kurdish PKK for a Kurdish homeland in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media. The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet has led
to judicial persecution in 2000 and 2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia.
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