Kurdish Rebel Attack Kills 13 Turkish Soldiers

[High_Gravity]

Kurdish Rebel Attack Kills 13 Turkish Soldiers

ANKARA, Turkey -- Separatist Kurdish rebels killed 13 Turkish soldiers and wounded seven others Thursday in a rare dayside ambush in southeastern Turkey, the deadliest attack on troops in more than three years.

The ambush near the village of Dolapdere in southeastern Diyarbakir province prompted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to hold an emergency meeting in the Turkish capital of Ankara with top military and intelligence officials.

A Kurdish rebel ambush in October 2007 had left 12 soldiers dead along the Turkish-Iraqi border and triggered a weeklong air and ground assault in early 2008 against Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq. That was the last major incursion by the Turkish military.

Kurdish rebels periodically cross the border to stage attacks in their war for autonomy for Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast. Nearly 40,000 people have died in the conflict since the rebels launched their first armed attack in 1984.

NTV television, without citing sources, said at least five Kurdish rebels were also killed in the clashes, and military helicopters were ferrying more troops to the area.

"The operations are still under way," Gov. Mustafa Toprak of Diyarbakir told the state-run Anatolia news agency. "We have 13 martyrs and seven wounded."

At least two of the wounded soldiers were in critical condition, Anatolia reported.

The attack is expected to escalate tensions in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, where frequent clashes and violent protests have undercut reconciliation efforts.

Earlier Thursday, Kurdish rebels kidnapped two workers building a military outpost in the eastern province of Tunceli – the second kidnapping by Kurdish rebels in less than a week. The guerillas also kidnapped other three people, including two soldiers, after stopping them at a roadblock Saturday in the country's southeast.

In May, the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, had warned that his forces would unleash a "big war" by July 15 if Turkey refuses to negotiate an end to the decades-old conflict following national elections in June.

Ocalan remains a powerful symbol to his fighters, who revere him. Turkish leaders have confirmed some communications between state officials and Ocalan seeking a way to end the fight with autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels. But they refuse to negotiate with the rebels, who are branded as terrorists by Turkey and the West.

The attack Thursday came hours after lawmakers from a pro-Kurdish party and the government failed to reach a consensus to end a boycott of parliament by Kurdish deputies.

Kurdish lawmakers say they will not take their oath of office until five pro-Kurdish lawmakers who are facing charges of ties to Kurdish rebels are released from jail.

Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek reacted angrily to the rebel attack.

"It is a violent act," NTV television quoted Cicek as saying. "Everyone should determine their stand, either we choose democracy or those who spit blood."

Selahattin Demirtas, a senior Kurdish lawmaker, blamed the political deadlock for the increase in violence.

Turkey: Kurdish Rebel Attack Kills 13 Soldiers

 

[High_Gravity]

Turkey: Kurdish Rebels Targeted in Offensive

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships conducted a major offensive in southeastern Turkey on Friday after Kurdish legislators declared autonomy in the region and more than a dozen soldiers were killed there by Kurdish rebels.

After Friday prayers in this mostly Muslim nation, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said violence by the Kurdish rebels in the Diyarbakir area will achieve nothing.

"What they did is never going to drag us to the table," Erdogan said of the Kurdish guerrillas. "If they want to make peace, there is only one thing to do: the terrorist organization must lay down arms," he said in nationally televised comments in Istanbul.

In a rare show of unity, Erdogan's ruling party and the opposition issued a joint parliamentary declaration denouncing the violence and vowing solidarity against "terrorism and separatist attempts."

On Thursday, Kurdish guerrillas attacked Turkish forces in Diyarbakir, leaving 13 soldiers and seven rebels dead. It was the deadliest violence involving the Kurdish guerrillas in three years. That clash and the autonomy declaration by the regional Kurdish legislators also sparked anti-Kurdish protests across Turkey, including a firebomb attack on a closed office of the Kurdish political party on Thursday night in Ankara, the capital.

The rebel attack, and the autonomy vote, occurred hours after lawmakers from the country's Kurdish party and the government failed to reach an agreement to end a boycott of Turkey's Parliament in Ankara by Kurdish legislators.

Kurdish lawmakers have said they will not take their oath of office until five pro-Kurdish legislators who are charged with ties to Kurdish rebels are released from jail and another Kurdish politician, Hatip Dicle – whose election to Parliament was canceled due to a conviction for ties to the rebels – is allowed to work in Parliament.

The military's offensive involves hundreds of elite soldiers sent to remote areas of southeastern Turkey where Kurdish rebels are believed to be hiding. The area is near northern Iraq, where Kurdish rebels have long been based. Turkey's military declined to comment when asked if the offensive has caused casualties.

Kurdish politicians have long pushed for greater cultural and political rights for Kurds, who make up around 20 percent of Turkey's 74 million people. Since Kurdish rebels took up arms in 1984 to seek autonomy in their southeastern region, the conflict has killed nearly 40,000 people.

After an umbrella group that includes Turkey's Kurdish party proclaimed Kurdish autonomy in Diyarbakir on Thursday, the prosecutor's office the region's largest city said it was examining the declaration, which the government sees as a threat to national unity. Prosecutors are expected to press criminal charges against dozens of Kurdish lawmakers, politicians and activists after the probe.

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen denounced Thursday's rebel attack on Turkish soldiers.

"I strongly condemn the terrorist attack in Diyarbakir province," Rasmussen said in a statement on Friday. "Such heinous attacks have no justification. I express my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who were killed. NATO allies stand in full solidarity against the scourge of terrorism."

Dutch legislator Ria Oomen-Ruijten, a member of the European Parliament, also condemned the attack and urged Kurdish lawmakers to distance themselves from the rebels who are regarded as a terrorist group by the West.

Turkey: Kurdish Rebels Targeted in Offensive

 

[ekrem]

Kurdish nationalists demand constitutional recognition for the Kurds, regional self-governance and Kurdish-language education in schools.
Many other Kurds however support Erdogan's Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, which put up a strong performance in the southeast in the elections.

Turkey warns Kurds of 'heavy price" after bloodshed - Yahoo! News

The problem is, that the "Kurdish Nationalists" don't represent the Turkish citizens with Kurdish background.
Prime Minister Erdogan's party is the party, which gets the biggest "Kurdish" support, again showcased by election results from June 2011.

google.com.tr - Genel Seçim 2011

Finance Minister Simsek on TV in Kurdish:
(Video)
"I am a Kurd and the State's finance is in my hands."
Mehmet Simsek, nasil bir Kürt oldugunu anlatti


Video of Deputy Prime Minister Arinc in jury of "Kurd Star" on kurdish-language State-TV. It's a music casting Show:
TRT HABER - "Kürt Star" Belli Oldu


There will be written a new constitution within 12 months.
Both the elected governing party and the biggest opposition party went into elections with this promise, and it is also what the EU "demands" from Turkey. The September 2010 referendum to modify the Constitution was only to be able to re-write the constitution from scratch.
The so-called "Kurdish Nationalists" who claim to represent the Kurdish people have lost already, the new constitution will cement their status of being a side note.

The political extension of the PKK (BDP) partake in the general elections. They got 36 Parliamentarian seats out of the available 550 Parliament seats. But they say, that they are the representatives of 20% of Turkey's population with their 36 seats.
They know, that they don't have enough support for their maximum demands to be taken serious in the Parliament commissions to re-write the constitution.
Now they make trouble again, the terror acts demonstrate, they are not interested in a peacefull solution. If that's the case, then there is only 1 option: Complete elimination of the PKK scum from this earth.

 

[ekrem]

Kurdish-language State-Television.
AKP Paliamentarian Ms. Orhan from city of Van singing a Kurdish song:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NACcG2r1J7A]‪TRT SES TV DE AKP M[/ame]


State of the Union Address by the Prime-Minister being translated into Kurdish and aired on Kurdish-language State Television:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsdvhRUY1Ww]Basbakan Recep Tayyip Erdogan TRT6'ya konustu - YouTube[/ame]


President Gül giving interview to Kurdish-language State Television:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oaCoKA2Wlk]‪Cumhurbaskani Abdullah Gül TRT6'ya konustu‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

 

[ekrem]

In Turkey, Kurdish writers once needed pseudonyms. Now they have a master's program.

Turkey’s Higher Education Board has announced that Kurdish is an official language for academia

CSMonitor.com


Top Turkish education board approves Kurdish-language program

A two-year master’s program on Kurdish language and culture at a southeastern university has been approved by Turkey’s top education board,

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n....am-on-kurdish-language-and-culture-2010-09-03

University provides staff Kurdish class

A state university in southeastern Turkey has become the first in the country to provide Kurdish-language classes for its new academic staff to help them adapt to life in the area.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=university-staff-take-kurdish-class-2011-07-13

 

[ekrem]

First Kurdish play staged on Van State Theater

The atmosphere has changed radically since Turkey declared a state of emergency from 1987 to 2002 to ensure security in the eastern and southeastern regions of the country. Scriptwriter and director of the play Mirza Metin said during that time, tanks were kept outside the theaters during performances of free theater artists for security reasons.

First Kurdish play staged on Van State Theater - Hurriyet Daily News

 

[ekrem]

Kurdish language centers close in Turkey, citing lack of interest

Owners of Kurdish language teaching centers in Turkey, inaugurated recently with much fanfare thanks to European Union-inspired reforms, announced Monday they were closing because of a lack of interest among Kurds. (...)
Turkey allowed private institutions to teach the language of the sizeable Kurdish minority in 2002 as part of reforms aimed at boosting its bid to join the European Union.

Kurdish Institute of Paris



It's no business language.

 

[ekrem]

Turkish Mosque Holds First Official Kurdish Sermon

A state-run mosque in southeastern Turkey held the country's first official Kurdish-language sermon this weekend, part of the government's efforts to boost rights for Kurds and meet European Union political standards.
(...)
The Ulu Mosque sermon is the first time the state Directorate of Religious Affairs, which writes sermons for Turkey's 77,000 mosques, has issued one in Kurdish. Imams, who are civil servants employed by the Directorate, in the southeast have in the past informally preached in Kurdish.

Turkish Mosque Holds First Official Kurdish Sermon - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2011

 

[ekrem]

Inmates allowed to converse in Kurdish

The Justice Ministry has begun implementing regulations in prisons that will allow inmates to converse with their relatives in Kurdish.
The decision took effect after it was published in the Official Gazette.(...)
In the past, conversations in other languages were banned even if the prisoner or relative did not speak Turkish.

Inmates allowed to converse in Kurdish - Hurriyet Daily News

 

[ekrem]

Turk leader admits Kurds mistreated

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's admission, believed to be the first by a Turkish leader, came during a speech in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the troubled Kurdish southeast region and a hotbed of Kurdish nationalism.

The crowds applauded wildly as Erdogan termed the Kurdish issue "my problem, our collective problem."

"Mistakes have been made," he said. And to ignore past mistakes, the prime minister declared, was not "fitting behavior for great nations such as Turkey."

Chicago Tribune

 

[ekrem]

“Law on the Compensation of Losses Resulting from Terrorist Acts and the Measures Taken Against Terrorism”

So far, around 266.802 applications have been received, over 50 thousand of which have been processed.

Rep. of Turkey Ministry of Foreign Affairs