[lg policy] Turkey: Kurdish Rebels Claim Ambush as Their Deed

[Harold Schiffman]

Kurdish Rebels Claim Ambush as Their Deed

Published: December 10, 2009

ISTANBUL — A radical wing of the separatist Kurdish rebel group
claimed responsibility for an attack last week that killed seven
Turkish soldiers and injured three in an ambush near Tokat, a town in
the north of the region of Anatolia. The attack raised tensions in
Turkey, where many people have grown weary of the armed conflict
between the Kurdish Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., and the
Turkish Army that has left more than 40,000 people dead over more than
a quarter-century.

The attack came as the government began considering democratic reforms
that would advance the rights of Kurds and other minorities, including
enhancing Kurdish cultural and social rights and permitting the use of
the Kurdish language in national broadcast media and political
campaigns. The reforms would be part of a plan to find a political
solution to the long-running conflict.

According to the Interior Ministry, 799 people were detained, 119
arrested and hundreds injured during pro-Kurdish demonstrations over
the last week, after rumors circulated on the Internet that a leader
of the P.K.K., Abdullah Ocalan, had been mistreated in prison, the
Firat News Agency, a Kurdish news portal, reported Thursday.

A constitutional court case that could result in the disbanding of the
only Kurdish political party in Turkey would probably raise tensions
and block a political solution to the conflict, political analysts
said.

The court, which is considering whether the Kurdish party, the
Democratic Society Party, had undermined national stability, was
expected to reach a verdict soon.

Although the party has been criticized for refusing to label the
P.K.K. as a terrorist organization, as the United States, the European
Union and Turkey have done, it did denounce the attack in Tokat this
week, calling it an act of provocation to fuel anti-Kurdish
sentiments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/world/europe/11turkey.html?ref=world

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.
Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal.
(H. Schiffman, Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list