Turkish warplanes pound 50 Kurdish PKK rebel targets in Iraqi Kurdistan: military

January 16, 2013

DIYARBAKIR, The Kurdish region of Turkey, Turkish jets struck more than 50 Kurdish PKK rebel targets in Iraqi Kurdistan region where members of the separatist outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) are holed up, military sources said Wednesday.

"Sixteen F-16 fighter jets took off from their base in Diyarbakir in the southeast at around 2000 GMT Tuesday and bombed the (rebel) targets in Qandil mountain in northern Iraq, 90 kilometres from the border," military sources said."

More than 50 targets were hit in the three-hour operation."

Turkey says around 2,000 Kurdish rebels are hiding in the mountainous region on the Iraqi side the region.

The raids, the first in several weeks, come as the long-running conflict between the rebels and Turkey appears to reignite and threatens to derail unconfirmed peace talks between Ankara and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

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On Sunday, a senior PKK member was reported killed in a shootout in Turkey's Kurdish majority southeast,www.ekurd.net days after three women Kurdish activists were slain in Paris.

The last air strike was on December 27, 2012 when Turkish jets bombed suspected PKK ammunition depots and shelters.

Turkey's parliament on October 11, 2012, extended the government's mandate to order military strikes and ground inclusion against Kurdish rebels holed up in neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan, for another year.

The PKK has several times proposed peaceful solutions regarding Kurdish problem, Turkey has always refused saying that it will not negotiate with terrorists.

Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a Kurdish state in the south east of the country. By 2012, more than 45,000 people have since been killed.

But now its aim is the creation an autonomous region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who constitute the greatest minority in Turkey, numbering to 25 million. A large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.

The PKK wants constitutional recognition for the Kurds, regional self-governance and Kurdish-language education in schools.

PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees, lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader Abdullah calan, stopping military action against the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish constitution.

The rebels have scaled back their demands for more political autonomy for the Kurds.

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.

The PKK is considered as '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.

Copyright , respective author or news agency, AFP | Ekurd.net | Agencies??
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Source: http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/1/turkey4439.htm

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