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  • Turkey's Kurdish Clashes Grow, Threaten European Union Entry

    May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Sakine Arat hasn't seen her son since he left their hometown in southeast Turkey 13 years ago and joined Kurdish rebels doing battle with the army.

    ``I sometimes catch a glimpse of a young man who looks like Murat, in a crowd in front of me or on the other side of the road,'' Arat, 71, said in Diyarbakir, 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the Syrian border. ``But of course, it's never him.''

    Murat is one of 7,000 armed Kurds fighting Turkish soldiers in the southeastern mountains in a conflict that has escalated since his Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, ended a five-year cease-fire in June 2004. The PKK is demanding political rights and better living standards for Turkey's 12 million Kurds. The government says it's a terrorist organization.

    Escalating ethnic tensions and bomb attacks in the region this year have damaged tourism and may threaten Turkey's bid to join the European Union. The 25-nation bloc has called on Turkey to strengthen democracy for the Kurds, including allowing them the right to stage protests. The Muslim Kurds are the dominant ethnic group in southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq and northwestern Iran.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 52, says he won't negotiate with the rebels, and has criticized the EU for failing to curb the organization's financing and political support from Kurdish exiles in Europe.

    ``The EU must be looking rather negatively at Turkey right now, because the government had told them it is widening rights for Kurds and tackling the military, but now all we seem to be seeing is violence and bloodshed,'' said Amanda Akcakoca, a policy analyst at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.

    Violent Clashes

    The PKK ended its cease-fire after the Turkish army refused to stop attacks against its members. At least 75 militants and Turkish security personnel have died in clashes since November, according to government reports. Forty people were killed in April alone.

    Turkish police fired on demonstrators in Diyarbakir, killing at least 10 people, after thousands rampaged through the city throwing stones and setting fire to buildings during a March 28 funeral procession for four members of the PKK. Among 300 people arrested were 10 regional chiefs of the Democratic Society, or DTP, Turkey's biggest pro-Kurdish party.

    At least 21 people, including 11 children, were wounded when a bomb exploded in the town of Hakkari, less than 50 kilometers from Iran and Iraq, on May 3. Authorities blamed Kurdish rebels for the attack.

    Kurdish groups have threatened to attack tourist resorts on Turkey's Mediterranean coastline this year. The number of visitors slumped 12 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier. Turkey is relying on revenue from tourism to help narrow a current-account deficit that widened to a record $23 billion last year.

    EU Negotiations

    Turkey began EU membership talks in October, hoping to attract investment by foreign companies, boost incomes and create jobs for a working-age population that's growing by half a million each year. The country won't be able to join before 2014 at the earliest, the EU says.

    Plans by the Turkish government for tougher anti-terrorism laws to tackle the PKK, now before parliament, have been criticized by the EU, which says the measure threatens to setback democratic reforms in the Kurdish region.

    ``We call upon all parties to exercise restraint, to remain committed to peaceful means and to show respect for democracy and the rule of law,'' said Krisztina Nagy, a spokeswoman for EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, in an e-mailed statement.

    PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, 58, was sentenced to be executed by a Turkish court in 1999. The government commuted his punishment to life imprisonment and dropped the death penalty three years later under pressure from the EU. Ocalan is the sole prisoner on an island jail off Turkey's western coast.

    Village Murders

    The Turkish parliament in the past five years has passed laws allowing Kurdish TV and radio broadcasts and now allows Kurdish adults to study in their own language. Kurdish activists including Leyla Zana, released in July 2004 after a 10-year jail term, say the steps don't go far enough.

    Kurdish discontent is evident in Diyarbakir, where the unemployment rate is 40 percent, or almost twice government estimates, according to Sahismail Bedirhanoglu, head of the city's largest business group. A government plan to inject cash into the southeast's economy won't work unless taxes are lowered for companies, he said in an interview April 13.

    In Dogancay, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Turkey's border with Syria, villagers are mourning the murder of Ferho Akgul, 85, and his wife Fatma, 80, who were attacked in their home on March 2. The two are the parents of Derwish Ferho, chairman of the Kurdish Institute of Brussels, a group that campaigns against what it says are violations of Kurds' human rights.

    `Show Courage'

    ``It appears that the murders were politically motivated, but none of us have any idea who killed them,'' said Ferman Akgul, 18, a relative of the dead couple, in an interview.

    Sakine Arat hopes pressure from the EU will end the violence and bring home her son Murat, who's now 37. Tarcettin, another of her five sons, died at the age of 34 fighting the Turkish army last year, she said.

    ``All I want is peace and my son back by my side, just like any other mother or father would do,'' she said. ``The government must show courage and announce an amnesty for all those fighting in the mountains, to help put an end to all this bloodshed.''



    To contact the reporter on this story:
    Mark Bentley in Ankara, Turkey at [email protected]
    Last Updated: May 11, 2006 20:16 EDT
    "All truth passes through three stages:
    First, it is ridiculed;
    Second, it is violently opposed; and
    Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

    Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

    Comment


    • armenian

      armenian genocide in this blog !!



      Putt some com's !
      thanks

      Comment


      • Turkey bombs Christian village in Kurdistan

        5/13/2006 KurdishMedia.com
        London (KurdishMedia.com) 13 May 2006: At 8:00 pm local time, Turkey bombed villages around Amedi, in southern Kurdistan, reported online Peyamner.com on Saturday.

        Turkey bombed the village of Dore west of Kanimasi areas of Amedi district. A Kurdish official told Peyamner.com that this was not the first time that Turkey bombs southern Kurdistan.

        Dore is a Kurdish Christian village that currently a number of Iraqi Christian families living in, after they were forced out by Islamic fundamentals in Arab parts of Iraq.

        Although no casualties were resulted in the bombardment, the village population fears of further Turkish atrocities.

        As usual, no official statement from Kurdistan Cabinet was made.
        "All truth passes through three stages:
        First, it is ridiculed;
        Second, it is violently opposed; and
        Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

        Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

        Comment


        • Four soldiers and rebel killed in southeast Turkey

          13 May 2006 09:43:56 GMT
          Source: Reuters

          More DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, May 13 (Reuters) - Four soldiers and a Kurdish rebel were killed on Saturday in an operation by the Turkish army against guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey, local authorities said.

          A statement issued by the office of the governor of the province of Sirnak, near the Iraqi border, said the soldiers clashed with PKK rebels in a mountainous region.

          Turkey has massed troops along the border as part of an annual offensive against the banned PKK, whose members regularly cross from Iraq to attack Turkish forces and other targets.

          Up to 5,000 PKK militants are believed to be holed up in mountainous northern Iraq.

          Ankara blames the PKK responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched an armed campaign for a Kurdish homeland covering most of eastern Turkey in 1984.

          Violent clashes between rebels and security forces have increased since the PKK ended a unilateral ceasefire in 2004.
          "All truth passes through three stages:
          First, it is ridiculed;
          Second, it is violently opposed; and
          Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

          Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

          Comment


          • The World Closes In, Again

            The two main political factions in northern Iraq, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), have merged This new Iraqi Kurdish government has its capital in Ibril, but is moving settlers and gunmen to Kirkuk in an

            May 13, 2006: The two main political factions in northern Iraq, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), have merged. This new Iraqi Kurdish government has its capital in Ibril, but is moving settlers and gunmen to Kirkuk in an effort to shift the ethnic balance of the city (which is surrounded by lucrative oil fields) to mainly Kurdish. Turkey, in particular, does not want an autonomous Kurdish government in northern Iraq to have its own supply of oil money.



            May 10, 2006: Kurds in the mountain village of Razqa (northern Iraq) reported that Iranian artillery had opened up on their village earlier this month. The first attack was on May 1, but there was a second artillery bombardment sometime within the last week. Several houses were destroyed. Kurds make up approximately 15 percent of Iran's population. The Iranians are concerned that Kurdish guerrillas will stir trouble in Iran's Kurdish region. A Kurdish guerrilla organization PEJAK (Party of Free Life in Kurdistan) has urged Kurds in Iran to oppose the government. The PEJAK is for all practical purposes the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) in Iranian Kurdistan. Meanwhile, Kurdish villagers along the Iraq-Turkey border also report more Turkish armored personnel carriers and trucks moving inside Iraq (presumably more than usual).



            May 8, 2006: Iran's Supreme National council Secretary Ali Larijan accused the United States of meeting with PKK representatives in the Iraqi towns of Mosul and Kirkuk. Larijan was visiting Turkey (specifically the capital, Ankara). The Iranians offered no evidence, but insisted that the US wanted to cause trouble for Iran and support "separatist movements." Of course the Iranians by making the accusation are stirring up trouble between the US and Turkey.



            Turkish sources confirmed the reported military build-up along the Turkey-Iraq border and in southeastern Turkey (the Kurdish region). Turkey now has "more than 200,000" troops and paramilitary security forces in the region. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Turkey's goal is to stop PKK rebels from using their bases in northern Iraq "to launch attacks on Turkey." Turkey usually has several thousand troops inside Iraq (figures run from 2000 to 5000) but that number has increased since the end of April.



            April 30, 2006: Turkish sources said that a Turkish special forces unit of approximately 100 troops had moved eight kilometers across the Iraqi border. The unit was in "hot pursuit" of a group of PKK rebels. The Turkish report said that "infra-red cameras" had spotted the PKK rebels "near the town of Cukurca."
            "All truth passes through three stages:
            First, it is ridiculed;
            Second, it is violently opposed; and
            Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

            Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

            Comment


            • Gendarmerie lieutenant sentenced to 30 years

              Saturday, May 13, 2006

              ANKARA - Turkish Daily News


              Gendarmerie 1st Lt. Bülent Kılıç, who commanded a Special Forces team that killed two villagers and injured two others, mistaking them for terrorists, was sentenced on Thursday by the Gümüşhane Criminal Court to 30 years' imprisonment. The court found the other defendants not guilty.

              Kılıç and other members of the team were accused of exceeding the bounds of necessity, the murder of more than one person and the wounding of more than one person. The court sentenced the first lieutenant to life imprisonment but decreased it for good behavior and the fact that he had no criminal record.

              Emre Eren, the lawyer for the family of one of the victims, said the sentence should not have been reduced, noting that the defendant had admitted the crime. He said they would appeal the sentence.

              On Sept. 17, 2004, a gendarmerie Special Forces team went to the village of Elmaçukuru in Gümüşhane as part of an antiterrorism operation. The team fired on some youths from the village, mistaking them for terrorists. Olcayhan Bayrak, 17, and Kenan Çubukçu, 34, were killed, and 30-year-old Selahattin Çubukçu and 19-year-old İsmail Sarı were injured in the attack.
              "All truth passes through three stages:
              First, it is ridiculed;
              Second, it is violently opposed; and
              Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

              Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

              Comment


              • Turkish, Iranian armies build up forces along Iraq's only quiet area

                Saturday, May 13th, 2006


                ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Hundreds of Kurds had to flee their homes in the mountain village of Razqa, Iraq, when artillery shells came whistling down from Iran early this month, blowing apart their homes and livestock.

                In Turkey, meanwhile, armoured personnel carriers and tanks rumble along its remote border with Iraq's Kurdish zone. Turkey has sent tens of thousands of fresh soldiers in the last few weeks to beef up an already formidable force there.

                The Kurdish provinces of northern Iraq are the country's most stable and prosperous area. But to neighbouring Iran and Turkey, they are something else: an inspiration and a support base for the large Kurdish minorities in their own countries.

                So Iran and Turkey are sending troops, tanks and artillery to the frontier to seal off the borders and send a message: if the U.S.-backed Iraqi government doesn't clamp down on Kurdish guerrillas who use Iraq as a base, they'll do it themselves.

                That has left the United States in a quandary. If U.S. forces take action, they risk alienating Iraqi Kurds, the most pro-American group in the region. And if they don't, they risk increased tensions - and possibly worse - with two powerful rivals.

                Just listen to Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.

                "We would not hesitate to take every kind of measures when our security is at stake," Gul said when asked whether Turkish troops might cross into Iraq. "The United States best understands Turkey's position. Everybody knows what they can do when they feel their security is threatened."

                Iran's artillery barrages could be warning shots, a crackdown on Kurdish guerrillas now as a factor in the wrangling with the United States over Tehran's nuclear program.

                Kurds, who make up 14 per cent of Iran's population, have long complained of discrimination in Iran. Iraq's Kurds backed the U.S. invasion of their country. Would the Kurds of Iran take the American side if tensions escalated there?

                "The Iranians are clearly very concerned over the mobilization of their own Kurdish minority," said Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at Queen Mary College, University of London.

                And Tehran may also be flexing its muscles to remind the United States that it shares a long border with Iraq, and could cause serious problems there for the United States.

                The Iranians' policy is to warn that "we have the potential to run you out of Iraq if you don't give us some slack over the nuclear issue," Dodge said.

                The traditional Kurdish region spans Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria and the guerrillas are based in a mountain range of northern Iraq that stretches into Turkey and Iran. They seem determined to keep up their decades-long struggle.

                Kurdish guerrillas of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PEJAK, have called on Kurds in western Iran to begin a campaign of civil disobedience. In clashes with Iranian security forces last year, dozens of PEJAK fighters and about a dozen Iranian soldiers were killed, according to official Iranian reports.

                This year, more than a dozen members of Turkish security forces in southern Turkey have been killed fighting Kurdish guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which is closely allied with PEJAK.

                After Iran shelled a village used by Kurdish guerrillas, the PKK warned that it was "capable of responding to these attacks with more strength then ever."

                The attacks, which heat up in the spring when snow-covered mountain passes clear, have led to the military buildups along the borders. Turkey and Iran have both rushed tens of thousands of troops to the area.

                Iran has twice shelled Iraqi Kurdish villages believed to be harbouring PKK militants.

                As the Iranians bombarded Razqa on May 1, hundreds of people fled. The shelling killed some farm animals but there were no reports of human casualties. Several homes could be seen severely damaged and holes from shells cratered the streets.

                Olla Hamad, a villager, said most of the guerrillas are hiding in the mountains.

                "PKK militants do not care about the bombings," he said, pointing toward the heights near the village. "They hide in safe rocky places in the mountains."

                A Western diplomat said Turkish officials have hinted to the United States that they are considering a large-scale military operation across the border.

                In a visit to Turkey in late April, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned against any major strike.

                "We want anything we do to contribute to stability in Iraq and not to threaten that stability or to make a difficult situation worse," Rice said at a news conference with Gul.

                The Western diplomat said Iranian troops on the border are not front-line combat troops and Washington does not believe there will be any Iranian cross-border operations. The diplomat agreed to discuss the situation only if granted anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity.

                Some analysts say that besides sealing off their borders to the guerrillas, both Iran and Turkey may be trying to intimidate Iraqi Kurds. The Iranians and Turks fear Kurdish success in creating an autonomous region in northern Iraq, and the prosperity of their enclave, could encourage their own Kurdish minorities.

                "The Iranians and the Turks do not want a free Kurdistan there," said Nazmi Gur, vice president of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party. "They are saying to the Kurds 'We are here.' "
                "All truth passes through three stages:
                First, it is ridiculed;
                Second, it is violently opposed; and
                Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

                Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

                Comment


                • Turks hack into the Radio Nawa website

                  5/13/2006 KurdishMedia.com
                  London (KurdishMedia.com) 13 May 2006: Turkish computer hackers have hacked into the Radio Nawa website Radion Nawa on Saturday, which broadcasts in Kurdish and Arabic. The Kurdish radio is based in Sulemani, the cultural capital of Southern Kurdistan. However, its hacking did not affect the broadcasting of the radio. The Radio is supported by American athorities.

                  Turkish hackers, as it has often been the case, display a Turkish Flag on the hacked website. There is also two message, in Turkish and English, displayed this time, which states: “Hacked, LordShadow, Shadow Security" in English and "Vatan Sahipsiz Degildir! Kahrolsun PKK!..Geber APO!.." in Turkish.

                  Turks, some organised by the Turkish Intelligence Services, regularly hack into Kurdish websites to display Turkish propaganda.

                  Hacking Radio Nawa website comes a couple of weeks after hacking the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Masuad Barzani, website Xebat (Struggle), www.xebat.net. Xebat is the KDP newspaper published in Arbil, Southern Kurdistan’s capital.
                  "All truth passes through three stages:
                  First, it is ridiculed;
                  Second, it is violently opposed; and
                  Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

                  Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

                  Comment


                  • Court Decides not to Retry Ocalan

                    Court Decides not to Retry Ocalan

                    Published: Tuesday, May 16, 2006
                    zaman.com


                    The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)’s request to reopen the case against terrorist organization leader Abdullah Ocalan was denied by Ankara 11th High Criminal Court.

                    Reportedly, the court considered “a retrial unnecessary”.

                    The ECHR focused on two options favoring “to renew the verdict” or “to reopen the case”, Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek revealed, the investigation conducted by the 11th High Criminal Court could be seen as evaluated as the file was opened and ECHR’s demand was fulfilled.

                    Mehmet Sukru Alparslan, a lawyer representing Turkey at the ECHR, noted Turkey will have fulfilled the ECHR’s request if the court presents adequate reasons for not reopening the case.

                    Comment


                    • 2 PKK Members Surrender to Sirnak Authorities

                      2 PKK Members Surrender to Sirnak Authorities
                      By Cihan News Agency
                      Published: Tuesday, May 16, 2006
                      zaman.com


                      Two members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist organization have surrendered to Turkish security forces in the Silopi district of the southeastern Turkish province of Sirnak.

                      According to a statement issued by the Sirnak Governor's Office, two members of the outlawed organization fled the PKK saying that they were disturbed by the inhuman treatment meted out within the organization.

                      Both surrendered to Turkish security forces on Monday evening near Silopi. They were not in possession of any guns or equipment.

                      According to the statement issued by the Sirnak Governor's Office, the two PKK members told military officials that there were numerous other members who were seeking to leave the PKK.

                      Comment

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