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Turkey's Kurdistan Freedom Falcon (TAK)
claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks in Turkey
23.8.2008
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August 23, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, — A radical Kurdish TAK group claimed
responsibility for
two bombings targeting Turkish
security forces this week which left
28 people injured, according to a statement on its
website Saturday.
The Turkey's Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a
shadowy group that has claimed deadly bomb attacks
in the past,www.ekurd.net
said it was behind a
suicide bombing in the southern city of Mersin
Tuesday and Thursday's car bombing in the western
city of Izmir.
The Mersin bombing wounded 12 Turkish policemen,
while 16 people, mostly police, were wounded in
Izmir. |
Kurdistan Freedom Falcon |
TAK said the attacks
were "acts of revenge" against what it called
Ankara's mistreatment of its Kurdish population, and
warned of further attacks.
"We are and will continue to claim a heavy price for
the attacks against our people and national values,"
the statement said.
In February, TAK had threatened attacks against
security forces,www.ekurd.net
tourist centres and
economic facilities in response to Turkish air
strikes on hideouts of the Turkey's Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) in Iraqi Kurdistan.
TAK has claimed responsibility for several bomb
attacks in Turkey's urban centres and tourist areas,
the worst of which killed five people, including two
foreign tourists, in the Aegean resort of Kusadasi
in 2005.
Turkish police hold six suspects over car bomb
blast:
Turkish police have detained six suspects in
connection with a car bomb attack in the city of
Izmir that injured 16 people and was claimed by a
radical Kurdish group, Anatolia news agency said
Saturday.
Three people were arrested in Diyarbakir, the main
city in Turkey's Kurdish-populated southeast which
has been the theatre of a 24-year Kurdish
insurgency, the agency quoted Izmir Governor Cahit
Kirac as saying.
The remaining suspects were detained in the Aegean
port of Izmir, Kirac said, without giving further
details.
Over 39,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the
Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey (Turkey-Kurdistan). 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.
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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